Months after the aerial attacks of September 11, 2001, I found myself sitting at the bar at "Capt. Tony's" and listening to a young, heartfelt woman with a guitar.

For the most part her performance was lost on the drinkers left alone with their private thoughts that afternoon, until she announced the last song of her set. And incredibly, when she started singing, almost everyone in the bar put down their drinks and sang along with her.

Since that afternoon, I've seen the title of that melody displayed on storefront marquees in my hometown and throughout the country when I travel. I've heard it sung by flag-waving fans at openings, half times and seventh-inning stretches countless times.

The song, of course, is Irving Berlin's "God Bless America."

Interestingly, it started out as a peace song. When war was threatening in Europe, Berlin wanted to write a song in 1918 that would calm his anxious fellow citizens. But he didn't introduce the song until he had Kate Smith sing it through a radio broadcast on Armistice Day, 1938. And as today, the song was such a success that many wanted to replace the national anthem with it.

As the performer and the bar crowd sang the song, I looked around "Capt. Tony's" and for the first time noticed all the patriotic graphic symbols around me-the "God Bless America" sticker with its red-white-and-blue typography stuck to the singer's guitar case, the small American flags placed inside empty beer steins on the bar, and the jacket of the woman sitting across from me with a flag lapel pin on it.

Within 48 hours of the 9-11 aerial attacks, Kmart sold 200,000 American flags nationwide. And you could see flags everywhere-cut out of newspapers and stuck to house windows, displayed large on the side of shopping malls, painted on the side of buildings, and flapping until dirty and frayed while tenuously attached to car antennae. Without doubt, the use of the American flag is fair game to communicate American ideals and products.

But it wasn't always that way. American flags on shirts and even diapers got people arrested in previous eras. Abbie Hoffman of "Chicago Seven" fame was arrested in 1968 for wearing a shirt that resembled an American flag. He was released when it couldn't be determined if the shirt was made from an actual flag. Hustler publisher Larry Flynt wore a flag diaper "to deliver a court fine in 1983 and spent five months in Federal prison for desecration of the flag."

The clearest indication of how times have changed for the flag is to note all the products that use it. "Little Patriots" diapers with red-white-and-blue stars were sold in Wal-Mart stores. You can buy flag-themed prom dresses and wedding gowns. You can even get a barbell for your pierced tongue that has a small American flag on the end.

Ira Glass, the thoughtful host of Public Radio International's "This American Life," has misgivings about too outward a display of patriotism. He and others believe that a danger in all the flag-waving and other patriotic displays is that they can stir up resentments against specific cultural groups-namely, those individuals of Arab descent.

Soon after the attacks of 9-11, "mosques were firebombed, Arab-Americans were vocally abused and physically attacked, and at least six persons of Arab descent were murdered. Five months after the attacks, Arab-Americans filed 260 claims of workplace discrimination with the Federal government, an increase of 168 percent over the same time period the previous year. Equally alarming was a CNN/Gallup poll that asked Americans if they would support a policy requiring all individuals of Middle Eastern heritage to wear some form of identification indicating they had been checked by security. Half of those polled would support such a policy." Consequently, Glass warned his girlfriend, who is Arab-American "that she ought to put up a flag, since the other houses on her block are displaying them."

When mass media, advertising, and personal messages employ patriotic symbolism in too strident and prevalent ways, the result can turn American against American.

Back at "Capt. Tony's Saloon," most everyone in the dark and smoky bar along with the guitar-strumming singer finished "God Bless America" with the familiar last line, "My home sweet home." The patriotic saloon singers immediately exploded into applause.

But when the performer didn't miss a beat and went right into the chorus of another famous song by John Lennon and Paul McCartney, the clapping stopped. Some say it too is a call for peace and just as patriotic as "God Bless America":

"All we are saying is give peace a chance."

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