Wearing the American flag? Make sure it's Made in the USA

All Stay products, including our USA Tee, are Made in the USA.

All Stay products, including our USA Tee, are Made in the USA.

It was one week from the Fourth of July, and Stay was set up at Market on Chocolate in downtown Hershey.

A 30-ish man, visiting the market, was wearing a T-shirt from a national brand with FREEDOM printed across the back. Below the word was a vertical American flag, except that in place of the 50 stars was the company’s logo encircled by 13 stars, presumably an homage to the colonies. There was an actual American flag on the left sleeve.

This shirt that so boldly proclaimed its love of America? Imported, a fact I confirmed with a little online research.

I don’t mean to single out this one shirt or one person; they are hardly isolated examples of the American flag and patriotism being perverted in the name of consumerism. Ah, the distasteful irony of a “USA” tee that’s not Made in the USA.

Imports account for some 97 percent of all apparel purchases in the United States, so most of us are complicit. I happen to think that too few companies and too few consumers look for domestic options for the things they make and purchase (it’s really not that hard). As a result, we’ve hollowed out our manufacturing base, our communities and our middle class.

Businesses and people certainly have the right to make their own decisions about how and where they source goods. But please have the decency not to willfully manufacture or purchase imported products bearing the American flag. The Stars and Stripes deserves that much respect, no?

If you’re ever in doubt about the origin of a product, just look at the label or ask whether the item is Made in the USA.

Remember, you have the freedom not to buy.