Thursday, June 23, 2005

Sticks and stones, and the American flag

A bunch of jerks in the U.S. House of Representatives just took the first step in amending the US Constitution to prohibit the "physical desecration of the flag of the United States". These jerks include the Rep from my own district (Doyle) and a friend of my family for whom I stuffed envelopes when he first ran for County Council almost 20 years ago. Both are Democrats, and both are from civilized parts of the country (or so I thought), with practical folk who appreciate our history and the Bill of Rights, not a bunch of emotionalist idiots.

The fact that these idiots are willing to throw a person in jail for manipulation of a symbol tells me that they have their priorities completely out of line. They seem to have forgotten the lesson we learned as kids when we behaved like them: "sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never harm me."

The "argument" for the prohibition of flag desecration is basically "it hurts my feelings so I want to beat-up those punks." HEY! Wake up and grow up! Hurt feelings are not a justification for violence. Suck it up and get on with your lives you little pansies.

Sheesh.

Resource: Timeline of Flag-desecration legislation

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