Is Flag Burning a Good Method of Expression of Political Views? (solution, politician)
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I don't think it is the best way to protest since it really upsets some people but it is legal.
Being that Americans are clueless as to how to put a successful protest together, like they do in France, Bolivia, Brazil, Argentina, I find it to be a poorer substitute for "voting" your outrage at the direction our country is taken, or has taken. I believe if more people burned the flag, en masse, at gatherings, it would send a strong message to our leaders in Washington that they're doing something wrong.
Whenever I walk through my neighborhood and see the flags waving from certain households, immediately I think, correctly or not, they're War Veterans.
Including yours? Then the rest of your post can be safely ignored. See how that works?
Ignore away. The law with respect to flag-burning and the impermissibility of physically attacking those who engage in it will remain unchanged as the result. See how that works?
Being that Americans are clueless as to how to put a successful protest together, like they do in France, Bolivia, Brazil, Argentina, I find it to be a poorer substitute for "voting" your outrage at the direction our country is taken, or has taken. I believe if more people burned the flag, en masse, at gatherings, it would send a strong message to our leaders in Washington that they're doing something wrong.
Whenever I walk through my neighborhood and see the flags waving from certain households, immediately I think, correctly or not, they're War Veterans.
Incorrect assumption. I often fly my flag and I was never in the military.
Flag burning has a similar effect on people; it either enrages or disgusts them or at best their neutral. I'm not going to say, "those people must really hate Trump so so will I." The question for debate is whether flag burning is a good way to express political views. I submit that it is not.
I would agree with you.
To me, if you are an American, burning a flag is not protesting or expressing a political view, it's attacking the symbol of your country. I don't equate whoever is in charge of the government with our flag. Our flag has been around for hundreds of years, whereas politicians come and go. If you're angry with our elected officials, burning a flag isn't effective. It's your vote that counts. It's your political contributions that count. Taking away your vote and your money is how you force change.
I wish schools would reinstate the Pledge of Allegiance in the morning. Everyone should have pride in their country, whether they agree with what the politicians are doing or not. Kids today are growing up without that sense of pride and civic duty.
At the least, you'd have to take the words "under God" out of it. It would still of course be unclear how forced compliance with totalitarian edicts would help promote such concepts as liberty and justice for all.
If there is any fixed star in our constitutional constellation, it is that no official, high or petty, can prescribe what shall be orthodox in politics, nationalism, religion, or other matters of opinion or force citizens to confess by word or act their faith therein.
Burning a flag became "fashionable" when it was originally done for "shock value" by anti-Vietnam War protesters, which led to the 1968 Flag Desecration Act, making it illegal to desecrate the flag. However, the Supreme Court ruled in 1989 that desecration laws abridged the right of free speech.
However, I abhor the desecration of the flag that represents my country, and frankly, these days, I think the shock value is long gone. I think that, in these days of social media and the barrage of news 365/24/7, there are more effective ways to protest and make your point. If the extent of your "speech" is lighting a fire to the symbol of our country -- well, maybe you need to clarify what it is that you're protesting about into an intelligent argument rather than just embracing pyromania.
I wish schools would reinstate the Pledge of Allegiance in the morning. Everyone should have pride in their country, whether they agree with what the politicians are doing or not. Kids today are growing up without that sense of pride and civic duty.
I never associated the mandated recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance with pride or civic duty. Once I thought about what the words meant to me, I stopped saying it.
At the least, you'd have to take the words "under God" out of it. It would still of course be unclear how forced compliance with totalitarian edicts would help promote such concepts as liberty and justice for all.
If there is any fixed star in our constitutional constellation, it is that no official, high or petty, can prescribe what shall be orthodox in politics, nationalism, religion, or other matters of opinion or force citizens to confess by word or act their faith therein.
-- West Virginia BOE v Barnette (1943)
That could be done. The words "Under God" were added later anyway.
It also would not be forced. (It never was.) Some kids may choose not to recite it and that's their choice.
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