This article is about politics, the world and how I hope for and observe change. But first, it’s going to be a brief recap of history. Oh, and yes, this article is about Venezuela again.

For over a century the Venezuelan flag has featured seven white stars. These seven stars have been presented as an arch on the blue middle stripe of the flag since the 1930s. In 2006, under the guidance of the then president, Hugo Chávez, an eighth star was added to the arch. This star was added to represent territory in the neighboring nation of Guyana that Venezuela had often claimed as their own. However to many, both Chavistas and otherwise, the flag was really a symbol of Chávez’s reshaping of the country. It was his flag.

Now I’ll attempt to condense hours of political debate and thought. With the death of Chávez and his replacement by Nicolás Maduro, Chavismo is not as popular as it used to be. The list of Venezuelans who detested it was long before this took place. Now, it's reaching record lengths.

With all this in mind, and the current struggles surrounding the people of Venezuela, I return to the flag. For those who wish for the nation to change from its current path, the seven-star flag is a sign of what could be. It is a symbol of protest against the regime and often is used instead of the official eight-star flag. I myself take part in this to a certain extent. The pin pictured in my very first article, a pin I actually own and use, is modeled off the old flag.

However, in my time, I have encountered some people, not many, but enough to cause a minor revelation on my part who don’t seem to really acknowledge that the eight-star flag even exists. This has led me to look into why I don't ignore it despite sharing many political beliefs with those that do.

Here’s why I think the eight-star flag, however much I may dislike it, has to be remembered. To ignore the very existence of the eight-star flag, and to act as if the seven-star flag is all that ever was, is to allow oneself to slip into a fantasy where the nation of Venezuela never changed. It provides one a gate to a fake image where Chavismo never was, where the republic never went into the deep end of political strife.

This is a delusion. This is an attempt to forget history and, therefore, never learn from it. While we may hold the seven-star flag close to our hearts as the rightful flag, we must not then go out into the world under the impression that it is the flag. It is not the flag. No matter what anyone says, the law is what it is; it can be changed but not simply ignored.

I don’t say these things because I wish to deter those who reject the abuse of their government. I say this because I wish to deter that rejection from transforming into the same raw ignorance, the same denial, that the rest of the world has given Venezuela. I say this because to combat a problem one must accept the problem. The flag has eight stars, but it doesn’t need to stay that way.

One day I want to be able to tread the soil of a country half as beautiful as the one my father remembers in his childhood. I’ll only get that chance if I remember that that country is no more. I can only find that beauty if I know it is missing.