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Flag burning

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posted on Aug, 20 2007 @ 03:53 AM
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Flags are just pieces of cloth. I am against those who say that flag burners should be punished , jailed or something.
"Ideas are bulletproof" . If the flag stands for "freedom" that means people are free to burn it.
Those who want flag burners punished, they are the ones who attack the very idea of freedom, not just a piece of cloth.
If everybody would burn flags instead of killing and going to war we would have peace. Imagine :
- I am angry at you, I burn your flag !
- Yes ?! I will burn your flag too !
....

"I disagree with what you say but I would defend to the death your right to say it " ~ Voltaire



posted on Aug, 20 2007 @ 02:33 PM
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...and the disrespectfulness and deliberate antagonism implied doesn't factor in at all? These aren't people burning a flag in the privacy of their backyard, they do where they can get the reaction they are after.

Flags, of whatever country, are symbols. Symbols are very important to people. Flags are not "just" cloth, they transcend mere "cloth" when they become symbols. The people who burn them know that, why don't you? If they thought flags were "mere" cloth, they wouldn't burn them. It's because they are more then "mere" cloth that they get burned.



posted on Aug, 21 2007 @ 12:53 AM
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Burning a flag represents a "f.. you" to the nation that owns that flag I understand. But it's childish to be angry at someone for that, or for cursing you.
Nobody starts real wars anymore like 2000 years ago - the kind of wars were you conquer the enemy rape and pillage and make them slaves. Today's wars are driven by profit for the wealthy. They have nothing to do with flag burning.

About punishing someone that burns the flag of his own country because "it's disrespect for the people who died", remember that those people died for "freedom" or "independence" usually , not for piece of colored cloth, and punishing someone for burning a flag is a denial of freedom, a much worse thing to do then burning a flag.
It's an attack on the very thing the flag stands for
Read the quote from Voltaire from my first post.
Why "defend to the death" the right for someone to burn a flag even if I disagree with him ? Because it's also my right.



posted on Aug, 21 2007 @ 02:04 AM
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Flag burning is such a primitive and immature gesture of discontent. No civilized society should accept such foolish behavior as some sort of 'statement'.



posted on Aug, 21 2007 @ 05:30 AM
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Does the concept of symbols and the importance they hold in peoples lives completely escape you? To many people, a flag is just that, it represents their country, both the good and the bad, attacking it is the same as attacking their country.

If the flag is "only" cloth, why bother burning it, that would seem to be, ultimately, a meaningless gesture. Only when it represents something, gee a symbol, does it, the flag burning mean anything to either the attacker or the attackee.

Symbols. Attack them at your peril, if the wrong person witnesses the attack...



posted on Aug, 21 2007 @ 06:47 AM
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If we hold to the rights of peoples to freedom of speech and expression, then we can not punish people who as an expression of freedom, burn a flag.

We either accept this right or we don't. To me, it is that black and white.

Of course, I get annoyed when I see some one burning my nation's flag, but I live ina country where I have the ability to burn my own flag.

How many of us are willing to give that up?



posted on Aug, 21 2007 @ 06:57 AM
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I agree that they have that right, and I wouldn't want that right removed. I just have a problem with the fact that they, the flag burners, or some of them anyway; can't seem to understand why people get pissed.

Let me reiterate, they have the right to do so; and others have the right to protest it. Personally? I don't much care for it, attacking a person's symbol is, in many ways, worse than attacking the person themselves.

That's my view, agree or disagree as you choose.




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