Seer666

Heh. I can't say I'm a fan of flag burning but I see why he did, and I think it was a good way to really drive home the point. It's not the act itself that bugs me, its the disrespect behind it. His actions were not out of disrespect, as it's been laid out. I would have liked to have had a teacher like that when I was in high school. Maybe I wouldn't have dropped out.

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Bill O'Rights

Question...

If...the American flag is just a piece of cloth, as some have pointed out...

and

If...I should set aside any symbology behind that piece of cloth...

and

If...the burning of said piece of cloth is simply a matter of free speech...

and

If...I should not take offense at the burning of this piece of cloth...

then...

Why is it so wrong to fly the battle flag of the Confederate States of America? Why all of the hullaballu over symbols of the former CSA embeded in state flags? It's just a piece of cloth, with no real meaning attached...right?

What am I missing?

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The_Jazz

BOR - I think I understand where you're going with this, so I'll offer up this - neither the burning of the flag nor the display of the Stars and Bars make any demand to set aside the symbology behind either flag. In reality both acts require that symbology be front and center. The real question (for me anyway) is exactly what symbols are being elicited by the separate acts considering that both flags have multiple meanings and implications.

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Paq

it's not wrong to fly it and i'm pretty sure it is flown quite often in the southeast...

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Bill O'Rights

Ahhh...so then it just becomes a matter of who is being offended...by what symbology is offered?

__________________
"I distrust those people who know so well what God wants them to do because I notice it always coincides with their own desires." - Susan B. Anthony

"Hedonism with rules isn't hedonism at all, it's the Republican party." - JumpinJesus

It is indisputable that true beauty lies within...but a nice rack sure doesn't hurt.

Willravel

I disagree with the Confederate flag, but I'd die before I'd take someone's right to display it. Likewise, some people may disagree with the burning of the US flag, but getting someone fired over it isn't just lunacy, it's dangerous. Eroding freedoms are nothing to shake a stick at, and if precedents like the one in this case keep popping up, you can expect fear to win more and more over reason and freedom.

Ustwo

Was there a time period in this country where a childrens teacher would not have been fired for burning a flag as an object lesson?

I can't say this is a slippery slope at all.

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The_Jazz

Nope. But you can burn both of them if you want. You can also pass a law banning the display of one if you want - although it may be overruled by federal law in regards to the national flag (there are no national statutes regarding the display or lack thereof of the Confederate flag that I know of).

You're trying to equate display and destruction, and it's not going to be as easy as you hoped. They are two different symbols signifying lots of very different things to lots of people. However, as I mentioned above, you do have the right to burn both of them.

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"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." - B. Franklin
"There ought to be limits to freedom." - George W. Bush
"We have met the enemy and he is us." - Pogo

SirLance

Sure, but would it have been half as effective in demonstrating why some speech is controversial, which is why we have a constitutional amendment protecting speech in the first place?

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Deltona Couple

Actually, you are incorrect on the last two....

As stated on.... http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/h...0----000-.html

and... http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-...id=Cite:+4USC8

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politicophile

Not really sure why this thread was brought back from the dead, but you're wrong. Here is the relevant information.

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The peculiar evil of silencing the expression of an opinion is, that it is robbing the human race; posterity as well as the existing generation; those who dissent from the opinion, still more than those who hold it. If the opinion is right, they are deprived of the opportunity of exchanging error for truth: if wrong, they lose, what is almost as great a benefit, the clearer perception and livelier impression of truth, produced by its collision with error. ~John Stuart Mill, On Liberty