I may've heard of that before, but didn't know the details, so thanks for linking.
Ironic freedom or no, I see nothing wrong with flag-burning. I like to think that the meaning of the flag is directly related to the situation for which it's used--so, during military funerals and other serious, patriotic events, the flag should be employed as a revered object. Same as on flagpoles on public and private property. But protests, demonstrations, what have you, go wild. As long as it's your flag, I mean. People will obviously be offended, but the fact remains that whatever the American flag stands for is not necessarily how everybody views it. Besides, why should the angry foreigner be allowed to burn our flag when we can't?
I remember taking an art class and reading about an exhibit in the textbook in which the artist set out a notebook on a table with the question "How should the American flag be displayed?" or something like that, but he had laid a large flag on the floor in a way that anyone who wanted to write in the notebook had to stand on the flag to do so. Here the flag was a potential barrier to free speech. I hear the guy got arrested for it after a bunch of veterans protested, but I still think I would've stood on the flag to write my opinion.
I know you're just giving us some history appropriate for Flag Day here, but what's a lesson if we don't discuss it? That's just my two cents ;)
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Ironic freedom or no, I see nothing wrong with flag-burning. I like to think that the meaning of the flag is directly related to the situation for which it's used--so, during military funerals and other serious, patriotic events, the flag should be employed as a revered object. Same as on flagpoles on public and private property. But protests, demonstrations, what have you, go wild. As long as it's your flag, I mean. People will obviously be offended, but the fact remains that whatever the American flag stands for is not necessarily how everybody views it. Besides, why should the angry foreigner be allowed to burn our flag when we can't?
I remember taking an art class and reading about an exhibit in the textbook in which the artist set out a notebook on a table with the question "How should the American flag be displayed?" or something like that, but he had laid a large flag on the floor in a way that anyone who wanted to write in the notebook had to stand on the flag to do so. Here the flag was a potential barrier to free speech. I hear the guy got arrested for it after a bunch of veterans protested, but I still think I would've stood on the flag to write my opinion.
I know you're just giving us some history appropriate for Flag Day here, but what's a lesson if we don't discuss it? That's just my two cents ;)
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