Ramon de Ramon y Ramon |
06-05-2003 06:26 AM |
Quote:
Originally posted by Morgeruat:
The big difference is the amount of respect the flag is shown when it it burned, I would take an extreme amount of offense if someone burned the flag I spent nearly 5 years defending. Maybe I am unable to seperate the symbolism of the flag from the men and women who gave their lives to see it raised, names like Iwo Jima, the Ardennes, etc etc etc, and my own experience serving make me see it as more than a symbol of a country, it's a symbol that reminds me of the patriots, soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines who gave their all to see it brought about in the first place, as well as those who defend it today. I know that it's also a relatively American idea to place the kind of emphasis on our flag as we do, but perhaps it's an attitude the world would be better off having more of.
I don't think the bill will pass, or if it does the supreme court would shoot it down.
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The wording of your description of your service in the American armed forces demonstrates beautifully why this debate is such an exclusively American one: if a German veteran, and one proud of his service, was to describe what he has done it would never ever occur to him to proclaim that he had spent his time with the military "protecting the German flag" - and for the very same reason it would never occur to s.o. who wanted to provokingly express his strong dissatisfaction with the German government or society to do so by burning a German flag.
So, ironically, it is the great number of people in the US like you, who hinge their patriotic feelings to their flag, that ensure that there will always be a certain number of people who feel inclined to express their views or just live out their need to provoke by burning the flag: where there is no taboo, there is no breaking it.
Also ironically, because few democratic countries interpret the concept of free speech as broadly as the US, I am rather certain that there exist provisions making "the degradation of national symbols" a criminal offense or at least a misdemeanor in several countries. Only, as there is hardly ever anybody feeling the urge to break them, they are pretty superfluous, unkown and never the cause for a national debate.
All of the above notwithstanding, I do think that there are certain other countries where the very strong patriotic/nationalistic sentiments of the population would make it suicidal to burn their national flag in public: one example that immediately comes to mind is Turkey.
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