Early this year, the “Mohammed Cartoons” scandal inflamed Muslims, while western supporters of a free press supported the right to caricatures of, well… pretty much anybody. (For the record, Polimom was supportive of publishing the cartoons, and the target was/is immaterial.)
Many Western writers and commentators defended those cartoons as freedom of speech, freedom of expression, freedom of the press…. all part and parcel of western society.
Today, Congress is debating an amendment to the Constitution to ban desecration of the American flag, because it’s so inflammatory to American sensibilities.
Why is desecrating Old Glory worthy of a constitutional amendment, but it’s okay to lampoon Mohammed?
Just askin’…
Uh, because the flag is the symbol of our country, while Mohammed (or Jesus, or Buddha, or W, or Clinton, or …) is a man?
It would be interesting to note how many countries criminalize the act of flag burning/desecration.
What I hope they do, during this debate, is to come up with exactly what acts they feel should be proscribed. For example, making the flag into underwear, or swin trunks, or a nose wiping cloth…
~EdT.
flag is the symbol of our country
Freedom of speech, freedom of expression, freedoms of the press are basic to the foundation of this country. If you can’t express how you feel about the country, then we wasted our time fighting the British .
Not only is the flag a symbol of our country, it symbolizes all the people/soldiers that have died protecting this country and the rights afforded to those that live here.
Funny that the scandal has a religious basis since the British came to America to enjoy religious freedom. People that live here have the freedom to chose any religion (or not) and can express their views without fear of persecution. This expands to politics and many other sensitive subjects. However, it just doesn’t make sense (to me) to burn the very symbol that allows all this, no matter what your beliefs.
It just seems like one of those things - they do it because they CAN.
Myself — I would probably not have seen an attempt to ban flag desecration through such skeptical, jaded eyes if we weren’t caught up in a fervor of nationalism and paranoia.
If we were confident rather than under threat — if this was a time of peace rather than war — and if our congresspeople were responding to a sense of pride rather than provoking anger and divisiveness for political gain.
But we’re not in such a time, and in the current climate, I’m glad it failed.