Flag Burning

You can tell that the Fourth of July is close by when the online posts start mentioning flag burning. When Hell does finally freeze over, they’ll realize that burning a flag is the ultimate expression of free speech.

There are, of course, certain necessary limits to free speech. You cannot, for example, yell out “FIRE!!” in a crowded theater. Why? Because this could harm your fellow citizens, perhaps fatally. But burning a flag harms no-one. As long as you’re not doing it in a field of dry grass, it’s fine!!

Some will say “I/We/My ancestors fought and died for that flag.” My response is…no, slave labor MADE this flag for WalMart, which is where I bought it. If anything, people died for the freedom it REPRESENTS!! That freedom was a freedom to do as we please, to think as we please, to say as we please, to worship as we please.

I always wonder about flag “retirement.” The local Nob Hill grocery store has a nice little booth up front where you can: drop off/pick up your dry cleaning, buy stamps, get film developed, buy lottery tickets, OH and retire a flag. Retire a flag, you say?!? Yes, retire a flag. And how, pray tell, do they “retire” a flag? By burning it. Boy Scouts, American Legion, they all do it. But because they get dressed up and play some music, it’s okay when they do it. That’s similar to when Howard Stern got reprimanded for saying words like “pussy” and “cunt” but Sally Jessy and Oprah did entire shows on vaginas and said the word “vagina” over and over again. I understand that context is important but it cannot be used to stifle the rights of the individual.

I’m waiting for those opposed to flag burning to come up with a better argument than “it erodes the very foundation of our country.” Until then, God bless America!!