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roachboy · 08-26-2006, 09:01 AM

i am taking a bit of time out from my busy schedule of torching little american flags to post here.

the burning of a flag was, in the louisville case above, clearly an act of political speech and should be protected as a function of the right to free speech the teacher allegedly has as a citizen.

it is kind of funny to read conservative folk above harmuph harmuph about this: it is funny because when it suits their political purposes, these same folk are all about protecting freedom of speech--to wit the christian coalition's argument that preachers can mix political statements with their weekly sermons because being a preacher does not mean giving up your rights as citizen to freedom of speech.

what's good for the goose, as they say...

i understand that elements of the extreme right (does that sound suitably trotskyite?) would have the american flag be a special type of signifier, one the usages of which are more tightly circumscribed than any other--this seems little more than a strange example of what i take to be a general conservative problem with irony, with distance. it makes em nervous. some signfiying relations have to be held in place, they say.

of course a flag is just sequences of color...some lateral, some vertical.
when made of fabric, these sequences burn pretty easily and sometimes make secondary color sequences as they go up in flames.

it doesnt--or shouldnt--matter that folk are offended.
as political speech, such actions are protected.

you might wonder what constitutes political speech--if i torch a flag while waiting for my omlette to arrive in a diner without saying anything about why i am doing it, then it might be argued that the act is just tasteless or bad: but if i were to do the same thing in a civics class, and were to present it as an example of political speech, then it is political speech.

on the other hand, those fine parents and administrators in louisville sure did provide the students in that class with a real lesson in the meaninglessness of the freedom of speech in america.

08-26-2006, 09:01 AM	#37 (permalink)
roachboy Super Moderator Location: essex ma	i am taking a bit of time out from my busy schedule of torching little american flags to post here. the burning of a flag was, in the louisville case above, clearly an act of political speech and should be protected as a function of the right to free speech the teacher allegedly has as a citizen. it is kind of funny to read conservative folk above harmuph harmuph about this: it is funny because when it suits their political purposes, these same folk are all about protecting freedom of speech--to wit the christian coalition's argument that preachers can mix political statements with their weekly sermons because being a preacher does not mean giving up your rights as citizen to freedom of speech. what's good for the goose, as they say... i understand that elements of the extreme right (does that sound suitably trotskyite?) would have the american flag be a special type of signifier, one the usages of which are more tightly circumscribed than any other--this seems little more than a strange example of what i take to be a general conservative problem with irony, with distance. it makes em nervous. some signfiying relations have to be held in place, they say. of course a flag is just sequences of color...some lateral, some vertical. when made of fabric, these sequences burn pretty easily and sometimes make secondary color sequences as they go up in flames. it doesnt--or shouldnt--matter that folk are offended. as political speech, such actions are protected. you might wonder what constitutes political speech--if i torch a flag while waiting for my omlette to arrive in a diner without saying anything about why i am doing it, then it might be argued that the act is just tasteless or bad: but if i were to do the same thing in a civics class, and were to present it as an example of political speech, then it is political speech. on the other hand, those fine parents and administrators in louisville sure did provide the students in that class with a real lesson in the meaninglessness of the freedom of speech in america. __________________ a gramophone its corrugated trumpet silver handle spinning dog. such faithfulness it hear it make you sick. -kamau brathwaite Last edited by roachboy; 08-26-2006 at 09:03 AM..