On a lighter note, the folks in my home town of Berkeley have found a lovely way to express their appreciation for the freedoms we enjoy.
This of course was taken at one of the currently ongoing protests in front of the Marine recruiting station on Shattuck Avenue. In a nutshell, the Berkeley city council took a vote last week and decided that our armed forces are evil and they should get the hell out of dodge.
The irony of course was lost on groups like "Code Pink" who have been bombarding the recruiting station every week (and the surrounding merchants) with ear bleeding bullhorn diatribes about the evil and immoral war in Iraq.
That "Code Pink" is allowed exist in the first place BECAUSE of our military, for some reason seems to go unrecognized.
But really, I couldn't say it better than this blog - (where I got the picture from as well, http://www.neptunuslex.com/2008/02/13/distressing/#more-3614)
"Flag burning is, of course, constitutionally protected speech. And it doesn’t anger me so much as it makes me sad: That flag stands for all of us. For you and me.
There are 13 stripes that stand for the 13 original colonies, and the bold citizens thereof who swore their lives, fortunes and sacred honor to throw off the yoke of tyranny in a noble experiment in personal freedom and self-government. The red in those stripes stands for hardiness and valor, while the white testifies to purity and innocence - always a goal, even if not always a destination. The blue canton symbolizes vigilance, perserverence and justice. It carries 50 white stars, themselves symbols of celestial perfection and which in combination with the canton speak to the great union of many several; states, colors, creeds and philosophies.
It stands for mothers who crossed the country to show up in Berkeley to support their soldiers living and dead. It stands for Code Pink and even ANSWER, who have the right to express their opinions. It stands for the truly radical notion of a government of, for and by the people. It stands for the waves of young men and women who have fought and died in wars against slavery, oppression, militarism and fascism, without whose sacrifice the world would be a far poorer and uglier place.
It stands for labor unions that fought against a different form of oppression to ensure that their the working class got a fair shake. It stands for immigrants who saw that in that flag the chance to build better lives for themselves and their families. That flag stands for freedom and democracy. In some strange way, it even stands for the constitutionally protected right of porridge-brained high school students who have never known a moment’s hardship, nor an instant’s introspection, to burn it.
There was never anything made by the hand of man so perfect that the evil among us could not turn it to their own uses. Villains have wrapped themselves in that flag to support their base ambitions and petty cruelties. Politicians and soldiers have committed crimes under the color of that flag’s authority. But those that did so usurped the flag without fundamentally changing the fact that the it represents the noblest of human ideals.
And so I’d like to ask that student something: If you burn the flag of the land that gave you birth, little girl, the flag of the community that shelters you, your neighbors’ flag, the flag of those sworn to defend your rights at the cost of their own lives, the flag that generations of your predecessors lived under in individual freedom and common hope against all of mankind’s wretched historical precedents - what then will you raise in its place?
I’ll give you some time."
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