Posted on 07/04/2006 3:31:16 PM PDT by RetroSexual
From the article: "It seemed like a good idea to burn some flags just because we can," added fellow organizer Sha Lar, 32, of Santa Cruz.
1) Burning American flags to demonstrate that it can be done is pointless. We know it can be done, it angers Americans who revere the flag, and it warms the hearts of our enemies. 2) Burning flags of our enemies where speech is not free demonstrates expressly for those in those countries that we can do it to their flags, and why can't they. Remember, if they see us burning our flag - they don't care. If they see us burning their flag, they care. 3) In our politically correct age - burning flags of countries other than our own is considered by many to be hate speech. By burning those flags, you protest unreasonable politically correct infringements on free speech.
Why do you assume that if people in other countries see us burning our flag they don't care? Of course they care! Confirmation of freedom of speech - which only happens when the speech is EXTREMELY POLITICAL - is always important for our international image. I spent one year in France not long after 911. Popular opinion and the press (hard to separate the two) were against the war, but no matter what we have sympathy there because of our freedom! It's what's so amazing about the U.S.: we got freedom of speech, we got guns, we got a free (well, free-er) market. I say it's what makes America great, and unfortunately we never know that freedom of speech or anything else can be done unless we do it. Just knowing it could be done certainly didn't get us arguing about it!
I think political correctness is a kind of infringement on freedom of speech, but it's not a law, it's about social customs, about offending people. Like burning flags. But offending people should never be against the law!
Hate speech is interesting for that reason. I think it should only apply if violence and destruction are encouraged, but I know that's not how it's applied. These people didn't say they wanted to burn America to the ground, they even act like they love America! "African-Americans" say the "N-word" to each other all the time: for fun, not for hate.
I think Stein's piece on flag burning and hate speech -
http://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1658268/posts
- is dumb because defending a bunch of other stupid religious laws - puritan nonsense - is not a good method to defend the flag. The flag is a political, not a religious symbol. The flag is not holy, it's a state, not a church symbol.
Last but not least: if Congress hadn't been trying to pass a stupid amendment to the first amendment - limiting one kind of political expression and not others - then these people wouldn't even be burning the flag. Look what prohibition did for Al Capone, or what censorship did for the U.S.S.R.!!! A whole lot and a big fat nothing. If these jokers couldn't burn flags, they might actually be dangerous to America.
Because - when Americans burn our flag, there's no real impact. The people in countries where they can't burn their own flag in protest, and who want the freedom to do so only view Americans who do so with contempt.
Kind of like a starving kid watching a rich, fat kid complain about having no dessert.
Of course they care! Confirmation of freedom of speech
People around the world already know that we have freedom of speech. Gratuitous burning of our flag, as cited in this article, doesn't mean anything if everybody already knows that nothing is going to come of it.
We don't have to demonstrate our freedom of speech by showing contempt for our flag and our symbols. Just having people say openly that they disagree with Bush is daily confirmation of our freedom of speech.
And I still hold that burning flags and effigies of countries and their leaders that don't have free speech is a far better use of our free speech than gratuitous burning of our flag. At least it'll have a point, and it will show people in the world that Americans aren't just self-centered, arrogant, ignoramuses who are contemptuous of our own freedoms and our nation.
"It seems like a good idea to kick these turds in the teeth just because we can," added Freeper Indiana Man, 16, of Andrews. Sorry I copied off you triggerhippie, but I couldn't come up with anything better.
I feel honored, actually. :)
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