Identity has become increasingly fragmented, and I yearning for unity, for something real beneath the symbols, hashtags, and colors. Flags and identity symbols can serve as powerful tools for recognition and solidarity. For many, especially in marginalized groups, having a visible symbol is life-affirming. It says “I exist, and I belong.” But that same symbol can, paradoxically, become a wall. Over time, what started as a shield can turn into a boundary, one that says who’s in and who’s not. Our identities can become rigid molds instead of open journeys. That’s a hard truth, especially when those molds start to feel like obligations, when we stop asking who we are becoming and start performing who we think we’re supposed to be. It’s exhausting, and it's limiting. Recognize that beneath the truck decals, the flags, the pins, and the pronouns is something shared: a human spirit trying to be seen, loved, and free in a world rigged to divide us. Yes, we’re being pitted against one another by the media, by politicians, by elite interests who gain from our fighting. They feed off our tribalism while staying above it. Meanwhile, we’re online, at work, on the streets, fighting about who belongs under which acronym, which color stripe, which side of a line. So what’s the path forward? Maybe it’s not about rejecting identity entirely but about refusing to let it be our prison. About allowing complexity, contradiction, and change. About meeting each other not just as identities, but as whole people.