Thread: Our flag is not a prop

Our flag is not a prop
Amy Hardin Turosak
Tue Oct 20, 5:00 am ET

Denver – I never imagined this could happen. While on Facebook the other day, I spied a profile picture that featured the stars and stripes of our revered flag and a hard feeling hit me in the gut. "Ugh," I thought, "another person calling President Obama a communist."

It turns out it was a close friend honoring the 9/11 tragedy.

It was startling, this new association evoked from seeing a photo of our nation's flag. It was a terrible, disturbing association.

I then realized why.

In recent months, I've seen many people on Facebook tucking our flag in their profile pictures to denounce our president or his policy by spouting a series of ugly, crude adjectives. No facts. No trusted references. Just adjectives.

For years I've rolled my eyes over the constant rounds of urban legends that remain stuck in a loop on the e-mail circuit. We've all at one point had some myth land on our screen, whether it be about asbestos in tampons or the Neiman Marcus chocolate chip cookie recipe.

But ever since Mr. Obama took office, such rumors have become increasingly political and increasingly disrespectful and irresponsible.

Social-media sites can compound the errors of urban legends – mass fear spreads easily among "friends." It's one thing to not check facts and think you have the secret recipe for a cookie. It's quite another thing to form opinions about national policy based on an angry statement on Facebook.

The flag is precious to me. The ideals it stands for attracted my ancestors centuries ago, and it has sustained my forebears ever since.

My family is rooted in this country. I have ancestors from Williamsburg, Va., who came over the Cumberland Gap to Kentucky and on to Missouri. My grandfather fought in World War II. My father served two tours in Vietnam. My aunt taught American history to thousands of high school students. Her goal was to make her students patriots. The man I married is the grandson of Slovak immigrants.

I think back to the sacrifices my ancestors made to become citizens of this country. I do not believe they ever looked to our flag as something to hide behind and shout unchecked adjectives or obscenities at fellow citizens or at our president. The flag was something to be literally looked up to. It was taller than a person, not on the level of our daily tasks. It flew over them.

Our flag is not a piece of clip art to distort and derange. It is a profound symbol. Our flag is ceremony. It covers the body of a fallen soldier. It flies at half-mast when our nation loses someone dear.

Given all that has been sacrificed for this symbol, please don't misuse its power. If you plan to use our flag to represent yourself in a political debate, then please speak with an attuned awareness and compassion and speak from a position of strength in truth.

The flag must not be used as a point of argument but as a symbol of the solidarity that binds the diversity of our nation.

I hope that my new association with our flag is short-lived. Our nation is one that tolerates protest, and many times protest has led to needed change.

But, if you protest, you have a responsibility to protest based on fact. This is not a university football game. This is the future of our country.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/csm/20091020/cm_csm/yturosakweb

Flag burning stopped before it could start
[i]A planned American flag burning at LSU ended before it started when more than 1,000 LSU students and other protestors forced police to intervene before violence broke out.

LSU graduate student Benjamin Haas had planned to burn an American flag at noon Wednesday on the Parade Ground to promote his First Amendment rights and in support of an LSU student arrested last week for stealing and burning a flag.

Haas received a peaceful protest permit from LSU, but he had not yet received a burn permit from the parish yet, so he decided not to burn the flag, according to LSU.

Haas did have a prepared statement to read, but an angry mob mentality took over and LSU Police escorted him out in a police car for his safety before he could talk.

About 200 or so of the students and military veterans stuck around afterwards to recite the pledge of allegiance and sing the national anthem as part of a response protest.

Haas’ plans came after LSU student Isaac Eslava was arrested last week for cutting down and burning the American flag at the LSU War Memorial on the Parade Ground.

Eslava, a native of Colombia, allegedly burned the flag early May 2 just hours after the death of Osama bin Laden.

http://www.2theadvocate.com/news/Fla...uld-start.html

Angry crowd swarms for scheduled flag burning
Flag goes unburned; student organizer escorted off campus
By Andrea Gallo Staff Writer Published: Wednesday, May 11, 2011

A jeering crowd swarmed after communication studies graduate student Benjamin Haas on the Parade Ground this afternoon after he outraged many students and community members with an announcement that he planned to burn an American flag.

Though Haas didn't burn the flag as he originally announced yesterday on Facebook, the mob of people tore after Haas until he slipped into a police car and was escorted off campus by police.

Haas did not have the needed permit to burn a flag, which is why an actual flag burning did not take place, according to LSU Media Relations.

After chasing Haas off campus, the group of more than 1,000 straddled Highland Road, shouting a back-and-forth banter of "GO AMERICA" and "GO TIGERS."

"I initially began this flag burning protest to define due process for students and suspected terrorists alike, to call on LSU and universities across the country to defend basic human rights and avoid putting students into the criminal justice system when it can be taken care of internally," the pre-written text of Haas's speech read. "In the name of peace, there will be no flag burning today. This country and the flag that flies over it stands for freedom, democracy, love, peace and the ability to question our government."

Haas attempted to recite his speech a few times, but the crowd cut him off, chanting "U-S-A" as horse-mounted police worked their way through the maze of people, pushing them back and eventually escorting Haas off campus in a police cruiser.

Ryan Nuckolls, agricultural business sophomore, said Haas is one of his instructors, and he spoke to Haas about the burning yesterday. Nuckolls, adorned in American flag attire, said Haas said he was "protesting unfair persecution of Isaac Eslava" — the University student arrested last week for vandalizing and burning a University American flag — because Eslava should be innocent until proven guilty.

Burning an American flag is protected by the First Amendment under freedom of speech.

Nuckolls said Haas is an open-minded instructor, but he did not approve of Haas's actions today. "He's a patriotic person and takes pride in his rights," Nuckolls said, but reiterated that he did not approve of Haas's activity and told him such when they talked yesterday.

Before Haas was scheduled to burn the flag, Shelby Taylor, communications studies student, spoke out for Haas's right to burn the American flag, further enraging the crowd. "Even if this is just publicity ... I respect that he has the right do do this," Taylor said, as Douglas Ducote, US Army Staff Sgt., thrust his Operation Iraqi Freedom hat in her face and yelled at her. "It's my flag too!" Taylor cried, as the crowd countered her yelling "Go to hell."

Ducote, who said he served four combat tours in Iraq, said he felt like screaming at Taylor was a flashback, as he suffers from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. "I watch my brothers and sisters die next to me and come home with this wrapped around their coffins," he said, gripping an American flag.

Ducote and many others waved flags in the air throughout Haas's chase, and one flag stood out as John Savoie, construction management sophomore, held a yellow flag with "Noli Me Calcare," spanning it. Savoie said the Latin phrase translates to "don't tread on me," and he and his fraternity made the flag as a replica of the "original flag used in the Revolutionary War."

A University student who called herself "Loko," and a Daily Reveille employee identified as Jessica Seaman, national resource ecology and management major, walked with Haas as he left the Parade Ground said she "personally would never be engaged in burning a flag," but she supports the "right to assemble," which is a "beautiful part of being American."

Following Haas being escorted out of the area, the crowd thinned, though many stayed for a "patriotic assembly" organized by Student Government President and Vice President Cody Wells and Kathleen Bordelon.

Wells said he "could not be more proud" of the reaction to Haas's behavior and Bordelon said when she initially created the event yesterday, she expected around 80 people. Wells and Bordelon invited veterans to stand behind them as they recited the Pledge of Allegiance as the bell tower's chimes rang through the Parade Ground.

A trumpet player then played the National Anthem as the crowd sang along.

Not only University students attended the protest, but several community members attended as well, including veterans and members of the Baton Rouge Tea Party. Rebecca Favre Lipe, vice president of the Baton Rouge Tea Party, said she was "amazed" at the demonstration of patriotism from attendees. "We have First Amendment rights, but there's also respect," Lipe said.

People began to gather in Free Speech Plaza around 11 a.m., where Sarah Kirksey and Hunter Hall, communications studies seniors, distributed 134 American flags they bought. As an incensed crowd snaked through Free Speech Plaza, a line of on-lookers watched from the terrace of the Union.

Two women who asked to remain unnamed brought signs reading "Benjamin Haas is a terrorist" and "You hate my flag but love my freedom."

Though LSUPD rode through the protest on horseback before it began, LSU PD Lt. Jeff Metzger said their role was to "keep it peaceful."

http://www.lsureveille.com/angry-cro...ning-1.2562076

Haas said he was "protesting unfair persecution of Isaac Eslava" — the University student arrested last week for vandalizing and burning a University American flag — because Eslava should be innocent until proven guilty.

Eslava has confessed to damaging the Veterans War Memorial at LSU, damaging multiple flag poles installed at that site, stealing the US flag, the LSU flag, and the Louisiana State flag. He has confessed to burning the American flag but will not reveal what was done with the others. He also stole a car, which he wrecked. He turned himself in... after much publicity over the vandalism.

FoxNation.com obtained exclusive video showing Louisiana State University students patriotic response to another student’s flag-burning protest. Click here for the video, and check out Gretchen interviewing Cody Wells, President of the LSU Student Government Association, who helped organize the response.

http://foxnewsinsider.com/2011/05/12...on-lsu-campus/


My nephew was one of the officers on horseback on the video. One person applied for the permit - 6 people showed up to support him - 1,100 showed up to support the flag. A valid point was brought up : all these posters who are defending the persons "right" to burn a flag in protest - what was their position when a pastor wanted to burn a Koran in protest ??