Sunny Days in Heaven
Spiritual/Political/Philosophical Blog on the Nature of Truth and Falsehood and Heaven


Thursday, June 23, 2005  

Burn the flag, go to jail?

The usual libertarians and ACLU types go bonkers over the idea of going to jail for doing offensive things; things that jeer and sneer at the heart of a free republic, but I like the idea of the amendment to make it possible to protect the flag from desecration - not because I think any particular piece of cloth is especially holy, but because we need a threshhold, a line which dares to be crossed and which culminates in punishment.

People like a certain couple (the Pearcys) in Sacramento desecrate the flag everyday, and get a big charge out of doing so; as do many leftists in their idiotarian "peace" marches. In fact, they try but can't get arrested.

I'm willing to give them a chance to get arrested and complain about serious oppression and silencing of their speech.

There's no line where you can say to them, I dare you to do that. There's no penalty if they do that (whatever). This way you give them that beautiful dilemma of cowardice vs. courage.

If you hate America so much, I dare ya to burn the flag!

What can they do? It's their moment of truth. Their auto da fe. Have they got the nerve, the guts, the core hate to fling a burning flag into the teeth of Authority and chance real results?

I double dare ya!

It's good for any society to have some taboo that is sacrosanct so the skeptic, the scoffer, the indifferent, the malicious rubs up against a real choice, a clearly unpleasant outcome.

It's isn't good for a nation to hold nothing sacred nor for it to fail to offer its people a choice in membership. The idea that you can do anything and still be an American doesn't work in the long run. We need a few limits and boundaries simply so that people know what is too far when they cross them.

posted by Mark Butterworth | 12:37 AM |

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