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| The flag of the United States of America flying in the Financial District of San Francisco, CA |
If ever there was a sin to behold, it is seeing one of those faded and tattered Chinese-made nylon American flags. If ever there was proof that we've sold our soul, that would be it. I of course do not mean any offense to the Chinese people. It is We the American People that have demanded impossibly low prices and increasingly greater profits so now we can buy a flag for next to nothing. I can take some solace in knowing that the inexpensive flags may have made it possible for some people to buy one where they otherwise could not. But if anybody has bought a cheap flag just because it was the cheapest flag they could find and then allowed it to become a tattered disgrace just because they are too lazy or too cheap to replace it, then I would be a little offended by that.
Here's some legislation that I might get behind:
1. No foreign company may sell American flags or any American states' flags inside the United States. Print as many as you like outside our country and sell them to whomever you like. In fact, if your country has a reputation of treating our flag respectfully, we could perhaps grant additional foreign aid money whereas if you treat our flag disrespectfully, your foreign aid money may be reduced. These funds would be to provide incentives for companies to make and people to buy better quality productions of our flag.
2. Any citizen our visitor to our country can get a well-made American flag, made in the United States, for free if they can correctly answer a series of questions about our flag, knows how to properly fold the flag and they have never been known to have treated the flag disrespectfully. If a person understands what the colors mean, what the stars and stripes represent, who designed our flag, under what circumstances and what it meant as a symbol to our forefathers, then they are a person who will inevitably love our flag and treat it respectfully. They will repay the cost of the flag tenfold by displaying it proudly, inspiring love for our country and not allowing it to become a disgraceful eyesore.
I'm sorry but I am just one of those people that gets moved at that scene in The Patriot where Heath Ledger's Character, Gabriel Edward Martin, is clinging to the only flag that he has. It is literally stained with blood and dirt and sweat and tears but it was his symbol of hope in dark times. It was a flag that if he was discovered with it, would mean he would be executed. He was sewing a new piece of cloth to patch a hole caused by a bayonet strike, a musket blast, who knows? And he fought and died to make sure that the flag could be passed on, along with this great country, to be respected and cherished. Every American should have that much respect and honor for our flag!
Having said all of that, I am on the fence about flag burning. Although I am offended by it, I don't know that I have the right to declare that someone else doesn't have the right to offend me. I can't say that another person's condition isn't so bad or their moral sensibilities so slighted that they feel they need to get attention any way they can. Or that I may not at some point get so disgusted with the government that I wouldn't want to have that as an available option. I don't like interfering with people's freedom of expression but there is also the sticky issue of what constitutes any legal definition of "flag burning"? I vaguely recall getting a hold of some rolling papers as a kid and rolling a cigarette with my dad's pipe tobacco and smoking it. As I recall, the papers may have had the American flag printed on them. Could that mean that I would be guilty of the act? We're in the digital age, if you burn the flag in a CGI animation, would it be in violation of any law?
Many of our politicians have stained our flag and our country far worse than simply burning it. And they did it, and are still doing it, wearing the American flag on their lapels.
~R. Charan Pagan
information systems technologist, musician, writer, filmmaker
Los Angeles, CA 90017
http://www.reclaimingourbirthright.blogspot.com/
Here's some legislation that I might get behind:
1. No foreign company may sell American flags or any American states' flags inside the United States. Print as many as you like outside our country and sell them to whomever you like. In fact, if your country has a reputation of treating our flag respectfully, we could perhaps grant additional foreign aid money whereas if you treat our flag disrespectfully, your foreign aid money may be reduced. These funds would be to provide incentives for companies to make and people to buy better quality productions of our flag.
2. Any citizen our visitor to our country can get a well-made American flag, made in the United States, for free if they can correctly answer a series of questions about our flag, knows how to properly fold the flag and they have never been known to have treated the flag disrespectfully. If a person understands what the colors mean, what the stars and stripes represent, who designed our flag, under what circumstances and what it meant as a symbol to our forefathers, then they are a person who will inevitably love our flag and treat it respectfully. They will repay the cost of the flag tenfold by displaying it proudly, inspiring love for our country and not allowing it to become a disgraceful eyesore.
I'm sorry but I am just one of those people that gets moved at that scene in The Patriot where Heath Ledger's Character, Gabriel Edward Martin, is clinging to the only flag that he has. It is literally stained with blood and dirt and sweat and tears but it was his symbol of hope in dark times. It was a flag that if he was discovered with it, would mean he would be executed. He was sewing a new piece of cloth to patch a hole caused by a bayonet strike, a musket blast, who knows? And he fought and died to make sure that the flag could be passed on, along with this great country, to be respected and cherished. Every American should have that much respect and honor for our flag!
Having said all of that, I am on the fence about flag burning. Although I am offended by it, I don't know that I have the right to declare that someone else doesn't have the right to offend me. I can't say that another person's condition isn't so bad or their moral sensibilities so slighted that they feel they need to get attention any way they can. Or that I may not at some point get so disgusted with the government that I wouldn't want to have that as an available option. I don't like interfering with people's freedom of expression but there is also the sticky issue of what constitutes any legal definition of "flag burning"? I vaguely recall getting a hold of some rolling papers as a kid and rolling a cigarette with my dad's pipe tobacco and smoking it. As I recall, the papers may have had the American flag printed on them. Could that mean that I would be guilty of the act? We're in the digital age, if you burn the flag in a CGI animation, would it be in violation of any law?
Many of our politicians have stained our flag and our country far worse than simply burning it. And they did it, and are still doing it, wearing the American flag on their lapels.
~R. Charan Pagan
information systems technologist, musician, writer, filmmaker
Los Angeles, CA 90017
http://www.reclaimingourbirthright.blogspot.com/
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