By supporting an amendment to the Constitution that would allow Congress to ban flag burning, Wesley Clark demonstrates that he does not understand what America is about. The right to criticize the government, even in ways that may offend people, is the very core of our 1st Amendment. Clark would have us damage our Constitution in an attempt to defend a symbol. Ironically, eroding the freedoms that our flag stands for would desecrate the flag more thoroughly than any number of flag-burning radicals ever could.
quote:I have served for 22 years in both the active-duty and the reserve component of the U.S. Marine Corps and have just returned from a two-year deployment to the Horn of Africa and Afghanistan.
Daily, I recite Article I of the Code of Conduct of the American Fighting Man, which provides, "I am an American Fighting Man, I serve in the forces which guard my country and our way of life, I am prepared to give my life in their defense." I have served and fought steadfastly in the belief that our way of life includes the right of individuals to express themselves, no matter how abhorrent their message.
When I see someone in America desecrating the flag of my country, I feel pain and hurt, but I also think two thoughts: First, is this a great country or what? People have the complete freedom to express themselves in a manner that they see fit. And second, what an ingrate and a moron you are for desecrating that flag; I cannot believe how you show such disrespect to the country that gives us our hard-won freedom, and I cannot believe how you are flaunting your ignorance.
John Kerry states that the Constitution preserves the right of free expression, yet he also is quoted as saying, "If I saw somebody burning the flag I'd punch them in the mouth." Is that what you fought for, Mr. Kerry? So that if someone expresses himself in a manner in which you disagree, physical violence will be used against him?
I fought to protect people like that from people like you. We should surround flag burners with a protective line of police officers; what better way to say that this is the greatest country the world has ever known, and as proof, we're shielding you while you show your stupidity.
David M. McCarthy
Lt. Col., Marine Corps
Reserve, Special Operations
Command Central
Tampa, Fla.
Thank you!
You see, it's not just conservatives who pander to emotion in their craven search for wedge issues and votes. Both Clark and Kerrey pipe up with competely UnAmerican sentiment designed to appeal to Bubba and his emotional attachment to the flag. Seeing as how waving a copy of the Constitution somehow doesn't carry the same resonance.
"This flag gives you your rights, including the right to burn it...but it also gives me the right to keep and bear arms so don't let me SEE you burn it."
quote:Originally posted by the G-man: Or as the late great Johnny Cash once put it:
"This flag gives you your rights, including the right to burn it...but it also gives me the right to keep and bear arms so don't let me SEE you burn it."
Preceding an ongoing investigation into SF State College Republican behavior, the Associated Students board unanimously adopted a resolution condemning the student group for purposely stomping on flags containing the Arabic symbol for God.
The Nov. 15 resolution comes on the heels of several student and student organization complaints at board meetings and the Office of Student Programs and Leadership Development, or OSPLD, which has also sparked a separate investigation and assembly of a special panel to decide if the College Republicans did indeed violate the university’s conduct rules. The resolution cited a rule outlined in the university’s Strategic Plan saying, “SFSU facilitates teaching, learning and work experiences among students, faculty and staff that promote equity and social justice within a respectful and safe environment.”
Amid heavy campus police presence at an Oct. 17 anti-terrorism rally in Malcolm X Plaza, some members of the crowd turned angry when the College Republicans stepped on homemade Hezbollah and Hamas flags, though the student group claims they were not initially aware the flags contained the Arabic symbol for God.
After that, the College Republican-organized rally dissolved into a heated shouting match between the group and a mix of students, including some Muslim students, eventually resulting in formal complaints to student representatives.
Administrators have been criticized for even allowing the rally to take place.
If, in fact, the flags have some sort of religious symbol on them, I can see why this would be offensive.
However, most (if not all) flag burning is offensive to somebody. And its all protected by the First Amendment.
In an apparent case of red, white and blue revenge, a Pakistani protester died yesterday after inhaling smoke from a burning American flag during an anti-US rally.
Abdullah Ismail succumbed at Mayo Hospital in Lahore a day after attending the fierce protest at the city’s Mall Road, where an estimated 10,000 people rallied.
Witnesses said Ismail had complained of feeling ill after breathing fumes from burning flags
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