Thread: Flag Burning

The guarantees of free speech and freedom of the press is merely against governmental intrusion. Someone goes and makes racist jokes in the workplace? It's not the government doing the firing it's the company the person works for, who says that sort of thing isn't allowed here. Is there government backing for the action? Yes there is, but not in the sense of restricting speech, rather in the sense of ensuring liberties, i.e. everybody has the right to work in a non-hostile, non-discriminatory workplace. Everybody does. And racist jokes can easily be hostile, and are based on discrimination in the first place. So person A is free to make all the racist jokes they want. But if person B has a problem with it, they have the legal right to complain, and if the company doesn't do something about it, they have the right to be compensated for it. And the company doesn't want to pay compensation. So it's easier to make discriminatory behavior which is, quite frankly, in this day and age, completely unprofessional in the first place grounds for reprimand and dismissal, so you can fire the people who can't function in a modern society and hire someone who's able to resist blatantly insulting people just based on skin color or gender or sexual preference when those things have nothing to do with being able to do the job they're hired for. This is what they call professionalism. But anyway, that sort of dynamic limits inappropriate behavior without having to start on the slippery slope of legally restricting what people can say, because once you start that with one thing, you get an administration that comes along and makes something else illegal, and a few years later someone else will add still more. It may seem like a good idea to limit the things you don't like, but time will come when the pendulum swings and all of a sudden the stuff you actually do like is on the chopping block, and there you go. It's like the Republican Congress a number of years ago wanting to make the filibuster illegal, even though they were infamous for its use, and are using it today whenever they can. It's called short-sightedness, and I'm glad they weren't able to do it, even if they're causing trouble with it now. As for a flag, a flag is a symbol, and not the thing itself. There have always been, and will always be, people who put inordinate value on symbols, more than they're actually worth. But if America or any other nation is so small and weak that it can actually be damaged by someone burning a flag in anger, you've got to question how worthy it is of that sort of idolatry. I have to believe America is bigger than bile-spewing neo-con talk show hosts, so I consequently believe it's bigger than any protester in this or any other country burning a brightly colored piece of cloth. My America is not encapsulated in a flag it's in the people and the land and the fabric of the society, the pure threads and the corrupt alike. So burn all the flags you want, I say it's only people's reaction to the action that gives the action any significance. If people didn't foam at the mouth and get all irrational at the sight of a flaming banner, other people wouldn't try and provoke reactions in that way. That's simple psychology. The people burning flags to get a response are just trying to manipulate you, just like people who try and be all obviously and overtly patriotic are also trying to manipulate you into believing whatever lies they might say. Symbols can be more trouble than they're worth, in my view give me reality, any day.