Flag burning, yay or nay i say yay :m:

i say yay as well, it's important to realize that it's just a flag, the idea that at one time, and still to this day in some areas it is " illegal" to burn a flag is silly in my opinion. i understand that a flag stands for an ideal and all of that, but at
he end of the day, it's just a flag.

I'm in favour of allowing people to burn flags just so long as its not intended to incite hatred, ala burning religious symbols in religious neighborhoods...for the burners own safety He who burns flags must be prepared to have his own burnt.

i agree with Xerxes

http://www.maddad.org/flag.htm
I wrote on flag burning several years ago.

Burning national flags is intended to demonstrate and promote hatred.

Why not just paint swastikas on synagogs, or burn books, or maybe a cross on your neighbor's lawn. Those are just "symbolic" acts, aren't they?

yay: freedom of expression; showing your dislike towards a country's actions.

People must be allowed to express their emotions, even nasty ones like hatred. It does no good, and often does great harm, to prohibit the honest expression of any kind of emotion. (I'm not sure that sociopathy even counts as an emotion, so prohibiting cries of "Fire!" in a crowded theater can reasonably be prohibited.)

When you suppress expression of emotion, it can go into several places. It can just fester inside the person who's trying hard not to express it, until one day it explodes. Or the person can quietly find others who agree with him and form a clandestine group that never has to undergo public review so they can get pretty crazy.

As someone famous once said, "Sunlight is the best disinfectant."

Why not just paint swastikas on synagogs, or burn books, or maybe a cross on your neighbor's lawn. Those are just "symbolic" acts, aren't they?

Because all of those things are private property

Burning flags isn't always about hatred.

Just remember to burn safely and clean up the litter.

http://www.maddad.org/flag.htm
I wrote on flag burning several years ago
Yeah i know, i read that here while back.

Burning national flags is intended to demonstrate and promote hatred.There are people who wish to demonstrate and promote hatred. There are others who wish to stop it. Either group may choose flag burning to accomplish their ends.

Why not just paint swastikas on synagogs, or burn books, or maybe a cross on your neighbor's lawn. Those are just "symbolic" acts, aren't they?

What about painting a swastika on your own lawn, or burning a cross on your own lawn?

Thought should be legal ;)

If you want to burn a cross/ paint a swastika onyou lawn, go ahead, that is free speech.

Flag burning is part of a wider issue regarding destructive dissent that we have in the United States. I say that the recent trend of protesters having to petition to hold a demonstration, and being corralled into specific zones, so that the demonstration can be only so big, and surrounded by concrete barriers and police beforehand are solid steps toward solving this problem.

Does anyone still think we're not living in a police state? It’s within our government’s legal power now to sweep you off of the street, lock you away with no charges, and tell no one for however long they deem necessary if you burn a flag. To my knowledge we're not at the point that they've decided to do that, but the current administration's whims are now all that stand between it being a grim fantasy and a reality.

i should set a flag on fire, then throw it over the yank border, let you deal with it

We should learn a lesson from the womens liberation front and the whole bra burning thing.
It got a lot of attention but lost a great deal of support!

there is nothing wrong with burning your flag as long as you don't bother others. it's your opinion. not someone else's

Burning national flags is intended to demonstrate and promote hatred.

Why not just paint swastikas on synagogs, or burn books, or maybe a cross on your neighbor's lawn. Those are just "symbolic" acts, aren't they?

Exactly. I totally agree with this, and am against it. Come on, people...

Burning flags isn't always about hatred.

Yeah, like when?

When a Nazi burns a Nazi flag

why wolud they do that? why would anyoen who didnt hate their contry burn their own flag, it is all about hate.

To either renounce their beliefs or protest the actions of their government. They could do it out of love for their country.

Scorched earth policy comes pretty close too
"If we can't have it, nobody can"

Burning flags isn't always about hatred.

If a flag touches the ground you are supposed to burn it.

http://www.americanpatrol.com/RALLIES/JULY42000/July4stills-1.html

why would they do that? why would anyone who didnt hate their contry burn their own flag, it is all about hate.
No, it is about communicatring an idea that the flag burner is bringing to the attention of the public, especially those perceived wrongs of the particular government in place at the time.

If it were merely a matter of hate flag burners wouldn't bother to do it in public.

Even if it were hate, who is harmed by the flag burning" Answer: No one is injured by the flag burning. Some people get pissed off, that's for sure, but so what? Are we all guaranteed a state of mind of perpetual equilibrium, or in other words, are we guaranteed an uninterrupted peace of mind? If so then whatever/whoever ticked off the flag burner should be punished for depriving that flag burner of his or her peace of mind.

Geistkiesel

"You have a right to free speech. We just think you are 'misusing' it when you are burning the flag." ;)

While I have exactly zero respect for anybody with a political philosophy so sophomoric that it can be summed up with such a disrespectful, reprehensible act as burning their national flag (or that of another nation, for that matter) the right for them to do so is sacred and must be protected at all costs.

Here in the US the First Amendment cuts both ways. Just because I don't agree with how somebody chooses to exercise that right, it doesn't give me just cause to impose my own set of values on them.