Old blog entries - Flag Burning

Some people just don’t get freedom

Teacher Suspended For Allegedly Burning Flag

A sixth-grade teacher has been suspended from a Del Paso Heights school for allegedly burning part of an American flag in a classroom one week after the recent terrorist attacks.

The teacher, whose name has not been released, allegedly burned the corner of a flag with a lighter, school district superintendent Carl Mack Jr. said.

Tuesday night, district officials made a decision on the teacher’s fate, but, per district policy, the results were not made available.

“Generally in my past history, the steps have ranged from any disciplinary action that I feel is appropriate, all the way to termination,” Mack Jr. said.

The teacher also allegedly said some “inflammatory” statements, according to Mack Jr., including, “I can’t burn it all because it’s illegal.”

The teacher has been put on administrative leave with pay pending the decision by the district, Mack Jr. said.

“This flag has been up on everybody’s car, their house, to represent patriotism,” parent Sonny Tupuanay said. “For (him) to do this ... I don’t know.”

About 30 students witnessed the alleged burning, officials said, but most didn’t report the incident because they like the teacher.

You know, I understand the symbolic nature of the flag. In fact, just the other day during “The Patriot,” of all movies, I gave my poor wife, who has to listen to all my bullshit, a dissertation on why a lot of people don’t understand what the flag means.

I’ll summarize. :)

Basically, the flag is cloth that we, as a collective society, have agreed is the symbol of our nation. In wars before the advent of nifty things like radios and the Ground Assault Mobil Infantry Computerized Doohickey On My Back With A Heads Up Display invention, it was pretty imnpossible to knwo what was going on in battle. Soldiers communicated with flags, and your standard was the line. Wherever the flag was, you tried to go. If the flag was two hundred yards up the hill, your job was to fight to that point. If the flag broke and retreated, that was a signal that either your standard-bearer was a pussy, or you were to retreat and live to fight another day. It was an important symbol, one that stood for everything, that stood for your nation.

Our nation, among other things, represents the values we set forth in our laws and customs, the premiere among these being the Constitution of the United States of America. As I have stated before, I am a constructionist. I believe the Constitution is a fluid document, but must ALWAYS be altered with an eye toward the intent of the framers, not just the style of the times. Most of us think we know this document, but I’d like to call attention to the first amendment. Used daily the country over to defend the media, this amendment is designed to protect the individual and the organized media alike.

Amendment I
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

In my humble opinion, BURNING THE FLAG IS AN EXPRESSION OF SPEECH. Political speech is still speech that should be protected.

We’ve had cases before on a local, state and federal level that have upheld the rights of hate groups to display swastikas in parades, fly the stars & bars, publish anti-everyone literature until the cows come home, but burn a flag and you’re a criminal?

That flies in the very face of freedom.

I would personally kick the crap out of anyone that tried to burn *my* flag. But I have neither the right nor the authority to abridge another man’s expression of displeasure with his country. The right to express such displeasure is what this entire nation was founded on. We were displeased, to say the least, with the rule of the English. Does anyone believe that nary a Union Jack was burned before, during and after the Revolutionary War? That’s a little far-fetched, dont’cha think? Why were they burned? As a political display of disgust. It bothered the King, and we knew it. Now we’re the King, and we’re outlawing something we should be protecting.

When a law protects the worst of us, it protects everyone. Example: Larry Flynt and the now famous Supreme Court case that founds the basis for our laws on protected parody. He parodied both a Campari ad and Jerry Falwell, who took exception to being portrayed as having had sex with his mother in an outhouse, so he sued. Larry won, and he’s a friggin’ sleazebag. :)

Millions of Americans have fought and died for the freedoms we have in this country. Let us not allow misguided patriotism and blind emotion steal that freedom. I am officially and forever against banning the burning of flags as a form of political expression. I find it hypocritical and morally outrageous, to steal Larry Elder’s catch phrase, that in a country allegedly dedicated to the cause of freedom, we still see this as some kind of threat. People have, and are going to, die for our freedom. We honor them by holding the flag as an object of respect and by protecting the rights of those who disagree with us. 

Posted by JimK at 07:08 AM on September 27, 2001
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Jesus Christ. Does it get any worse?

It’s a little overwhelming to think about today. I woke up to find out that not only were we the victims of a terrorist attack, but that the World Trade Center towers were just...gone.

Not in the skyline.

Gone.

And with it thousands of lives. Millions of dollars, maybe billions.

I don’t know anyone personally who was killed. Well, not that I know of. All my friends and family have checked in with someone at this point. But the utter devastation doesn’t feel any less impacting to me. The physical representation of the missing piece of the skyline keeps driving it home...NYC will never, ever be the same. My wife said something powerful to me this afternoon...she said it was “a scar on the face of America.” She’s right…

But scars heal. And when they do, sometimes the person, or country, that was wounded is all the stronger for the scar. I shudder to think what is going to happen in the coming weeks and months given the seemingly forgone conclusion that this was Osama Bin-laden, or at least some Middle Eastern terrorist group. This isn’t going to break the US, this is going to galvanize us. This has united political enemies, quelled political debate, brought left and right, conservative and liberal, Democrat and Republican, men, women, black, white...virtually everyone together, and we have a common feeling:

Bloodlust.

To be blunt, you done fucked with the wrong bull, Jack. Whomever is ultimately responsible for this tragedy will pay dearly, and in the meantime many untold thousands of innocent people along the way will pay. The US military, the US government, the US people will be out for blood, and who can blame them? I’m sitting here trying to be the good person, trying to not feel hatred for anything remotely Arabic in nature, I know how horrible that is, and yet the bloodlust in me says fuck it, just wipe Afghanistan off the goodamned map is they’re protecting Bin-laden. Of course the truth is there are millions of Afghan citizens who want nothing to do with terrorism and they are not responsible. They should not be punished. In the light of day, I know cooler heads than mine will prevail, and I’m glad for that. This is a major fault in my psyche, and I have to live with it, but tonight, right now, after spending all day tracking down friends and family, watching the breaking news...seeing the sun set behind Peter Jennings on ABC and realizing that there was something missing from the skyline...well fuck ‘em. Let ‘em all burn in hell. If there is any justice in this world, the terrorist leaders of the groups not responsible will point their fingers at the ones who are.

I hope no one takes this situation and turns it into some stupid political game. The first politician I hear try to turn this into some dumbass argument about why we need more funding for research into reducing video game violence, or protecting the unborn, or gun bans or any other dumb fucking political football is going to get kicked square in the fucking face. Our only concern now should be to get blood to the hospitals, dig out the rubble and re-build those towers, so they can stand as a giant pair of middle fingers to future terrorists: G’head, knock us down. We get back up, bitch. We can take it.

Give blood. Call your local centers first, make sure they can handle the traffic. If you’re around the NYC area, make sure you know what they need and where to go. If you don’t know the number to call, call any hospital or police station or fire department, radio or TV station or newspaper. Any one of them will steer you in the right direction.

And while I’m thinking about it, stop and give thanks to the Internet today...it kept a LOT of us in touch when land phone lines and cellular lines were just saturated and you couldn’t get a call out.

I found this photo on the ‘net today. It almost made me cry. (big file, 106KB)

Posted by JimK at 01:31 AM on September 12, 2001
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We’ve never been stay the course, George.  Except, you know, every time I talk about Iraq.

Welcome Daily Pundit readers! Post is here.

Posted by JimK at 10:19 PM on October 23, 2000
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Open Forum

This entry should be used to post links or discuss things that aren’t covered in blog posts.  There will be a link to this entry on the sidebar of the site, and you can always look at the last 30 comments link to see if anyting new has been added.

Enjoy! 

Thanks to davidst for the idea.

Posted by JimK at 06:00 AM on January 01, 2000
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Categories: Other