Letters to the Editor
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If Feinstein votes for this
I'm voting Republican. I'm serious. If our option is a shamelessly pandering Faux republican and a real republican, I'm voting for the real one. Because limiting the First Amendment is NOT a democratic value in my book and I refuse to reward her for her minor "lesser of two evils" position. I'm so fed up with her I could scream right now.
To paraphrase a Rob Reiner movie: The symbol of your freedom cannot just be a flag. It must be the right to burn that flag in protest.
What does the 1st Amendment mean, anyway, if we don't have the right to this ultimate form of speaking out against our government?
My husband and I will be donating the maximum amount to Sen Russell Feingold's campaign. A man with integrity in the White House. That'd be a nice change of pace.
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"They came on in the same old way ... "
That's a quote from Wellington about the French at Waterloo. I hope it is also about the Republicans this November, but I have my doubts.
Can one seriously blame Republicans for trying to raise phony issues? This is how they've managed to win elections for years. They'll keep winning elections this way until the American People, God Bless Us, see through the clever negative ad campaigns and the wedge issues pitting one group of us against each other and start asking why Flag Burning and Gay Marriage should matter more than the gross corruption and incompetence that is killing the future of our children. I hope we wake up before this goes on much longer.
George
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Lost
Ten years ago, I was passionate about this issue. Passionate enough to spend countless hours in flame wars with the opposition, whose minds I never managed to change. Passionate enough to try to convince people that this amendment is in fact more dangerous to America than any burning flag, because it turns our nation of constitutional law on its head and says a piece of cloth is more important than the nation's founding principles and documents.
I've lost that passion.
Not because I don't still believe those things. Because we've lost. The voices of the founding fathers have finally been drowned out by the shrieking heads on cable news. It's all over but the shoutin'.
We have become a self-parody of a nation, populated by a majority that honestly believes fist-pumping chants of "U.S.A! U.S.A!" are what makes us great. That a flag burning every decade or so constitutes a greater threat to the USA than a blatantly illegal war, amoral corporate greed, or the hundreds of defiant signing statements flying out of the White House.
I just can't get worked up about this amendment anymore. When I was passionate about this amendment, I still believed America was the country my kindergarten teacher taught me to love.
I know better today. I know what kind of country I really live in.
It's a country full of people who can't wait to throw off the bothersome constraints of the Bill of Rights so they can get down to some serious jingoism, anti-immigrant hysteria, and (if we get really luck with that gay marriage dealio!) encoded discrimination.
It's a country I'm ashamed of.
All the flags in the world, waving all at once, will not erase that shame.
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Feinstein lost my support
because of her support for this childish amdendment. I'll no longer endorse her nor contribute to her campaign.
One problem Democrats have with the issue is a number of television personalities that end up being indentified with Democrats really have no respect for the Colors. Example, Bill Maher was doing a segment and he used the Flag as a prop, not only did he not fold it correctly, but he actually dropped it on the floor behind his desk. That doesn't sit will with me, and certainly irks many others as well.
What the Flag stands for, Liberty, is far more important that the physical aspects of the Flag. This amendment attacks the essence of the flag in an attempt to protect it.
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Object lessons
Perhaps instead of offering up the same valid but apparently not effective arguments against this debacle of an amendment, we should provide some object lessons on its absurdity instead.
I suggest baking a nice big 4th of July cake with the flag on it, and handing out slices to all our fine Senators. Once they've had a slice, let them know they are all now criminally liable, since they've participated in the desecration of a flag (cutting it up, and then literally turning it to shit).
For those that sputter that that logic is absurd... well, yes. Yes it is. And that is exactly the problem with this amendment.
-Jeremy
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Annoyed by the hypocrisy
Personally, I believe that flag burning, while disgusting, is a first amendment right.
Having said that, if congress DOES go forward with this amemdment, it should also make it illegal to display the flag when it is torn and dirty. I have NEVER seen a flag-burning. I see improperly displayed flags EVERY DAY. Presumably some of these flags are displayed by the very people who want a flag burning amendment. Let us see if they like their first amendment right to display a dirty flag abridged by the government.
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Republicans Are the biggest Pyros when it comes to the flag
When we moved to Utah and the Scouts was inextricably tied to the Mormon Church, I was shocked at how excited the boys got at "retiring" flags which means burning the flag at a ceremony. It was so sickening watching the plastic, made in china fabric melting as the boys watched eyes glazed over.
Whoever thought of burning flags, the republicans really enjoy the process. A picture of your local scouts "retiring" a flag could visually dampen the PR effort to use flag burning as some sort of pagan symbol of the democrats.
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Torch the Democrats ? Why Not the Repoublicans ?
I am sick and tired of seeing headlines hinting that the Democrats may about to be destroyed by some Republican dirty trick, political ploy, Karl Rove "ingenius" smear campaign, their own ineptitude, etc., etc. - - ad nauseum.
And now the same even from Michael Scherer !
If Scherer offers some sort of rebuttal to his own insinuation, OK I concede, but I still REFUSE TO READ HIS COLUMN because his headline helps promote the same vacant and negative innuendo that we now see daily on TV, in newspapers, and even in liberal websites. Check out, for instance, yesterday's Huffington Post and Helen Thomas' column in sacbee, the Sacramento, CA newspaper. The same drumbeat has been going on for months.
Why don't you all give it a rest ? !
Or are some columnists, bloggers, editorial writers, and newspaper reporters hoping to see their "prophesies" fulfilled ?
If the Democtrats lose any advantage or political battle(s), they certainly don't need anyone's help by needling and cautioning them constantly or managing, either deliberately are unwittingly, to undermine them with a barrage of warnings and expressions of disappointment. It's one thing to disagree and offer counter arguments or criticisms; it's another to scream that the sky is falling. Given enough of this nonsense, the American voter will be ( IS already ? ) convinced that the Democrerats are all ineffectual losers, while Republicans are all criminals - - although the latter is much closer to the facts.
To put it more bluntly, the media mouths, including liberals running scared, should KNOCK IT OFF !