In national news, the House of Representatives passed a Anti-Flag burning bill with a vote of 286-130. You remember flag burning, that issue that has enflamed so many Americans recently, enough that we must galvanize the government to push through this proposed Amendment.
I like what the folks at the moderate voice had to say about this, as well as their quotes by Citizen Smash. Real quickly, they abhor flag burning (so do I) think it's quite distasteful (as do I), but they also disapprove of a flag-burning amendment. The Moderate Voice looks at this as nothing short of partisan politics, a group trying to find an issue they can rally around and cause a stir over - is it free speech, or is it a desecration of an American Symbol? I can't help but agree with that synopsis. I'd not heard much in the news since about this in several years, and can't think of any good reason to bring it up now when there are so many other issues that can and should be handled first.
I'm not really the best one to bring clear issue to this, so I recommend reading the moderate voice's post.
4 comments:
wtf? since when is flag burning such a big problem? how often do you even hear about anyone burning a flag? i mean, if the flag can be used as a pair of thong panties on display in playboy, then how sacred is the thing? i think we kinda lost all semblance of respect for the idea of a flag when we started making them into bikinis and pasting them all over SUV's. to me, it's a totally empty symbol anyway. i think this is more about stifling the freedom of expression - when someone burns a flag, they are generally expressing their utter disgust at the policies of the government in a very dramatic manner,intended to get some attention (especially from the media) when their words are not being heard. this bill is just another way - along with "free" speech zones, the "patriot" act and censoring university papers that we are slowly moving toward fascism.
I'm with you on this one, Steve. If you'll pardon the pun, this is not one of the burning issues of our time, nor is it something I think should clutter our constitution. One of the great strengths of our constitution -- as opposed to the 300+ pages of detailed drek spouted in the proposed EU const -- is its brevity. It is a useful, living document precisely because it does not get bogged down in the details of day to day live in America but, instead, hews more to broad principles. And flag burning, while distasteful, is not a broad principle.
RHM, I can't quite subscribe to you on the university papers - see my previous post - but the rest is right along the lines I was going.
Bookworm, you said what I was trying to much better than I could have, thanks for your contribution.
nice blog
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