So now, the bold fervor of patriotism that led millions of people to put American Flag bumper stickers on their Ford Aspires is starting to wane.

Every day, as I toodle around in the nightmarish congestion of Orange County, I am presented with flags in various states of decay. Sunbleached and fading, they are becoming the orange, beige and turquoise instead of the red, white and blue. Soon, a hundred thousand stickers on a hundred thousand minivans will be sporting Jasper Johns' after-image flag.

America is the land of the token gesture.