The American Flag:

22 Comments

  1. If it is just a flag then why the outrage about the Union Jack??? Oh I see, someone desecrates the the US flag it is just a flag, however when you fly the Union Jack it is not the flag, BUT what it represents. (cue the music) The US flag represents the freedom won through the blood spilled by of hundreds of thousands Americans who fought on this soil and foreign soil. The flag represents the sweat of hundred of millions American who built this country into the most democratic and prosperous nations in humankind. The flag represents the tears shed by the Americans during all the pain and turmoil Americans have gone through for the past 300 years to build this country , into a beacon of democracy and prosperity that is the model for the whole world. The forces that desecrate our flag seek to desecrate our nation, our people and all that we stand for and cherish, if you give evil an inch it will take a mile, and we have already given it a mile. Our grandchildren will curse our names

  2. Dear Janet,
    Thank you for responding. You are right – the Globe and Herald are part of the problem. But they like a good story. When William Camuti was arrested, Peter Gelzinis wrote that William Camuti’s trial will be “tantalizing” (something to that effect).
    Going to universities is a great idea. But it is easier handing out a newspaper column that explains your problem, than trying to explain it to individual students. Once they read the column about William Camuti escaping justice – you can quickly explain the federal corruption.
    If possible, please contact Peter Gelzinis and explain that Willliam Camuti has escaped facing justice for the murder of Stephen Rakes. Peter Gelzinis lives in Southie. If possible, start collecting signatures (even three signatures is considered a “petition”) that seek to have William Camuti face justice. This will give Peter Gelzinis a peg to hang the story on.
    Peter Gelzinis already invested effort in the hope for that William Camuti will face justice for murdering Stephen Rakes. Now Peter Gelziznis is being denied, like the rest of the world, the chance to learn exactly why William Camuti killed Stephen Rakes.
    The claim Stephen Rakes lent William Camuti is outrageous. Stephen Rakes recorded some of their phone conversations – that’s how much he didn’t trust William Camuti.
    The trial of William Camuti would show there was no reasonable explanation for murdering Stephen Rakes. But that cold-blooded murder kept Stephen Rakes from exposing Kevin Weeks’ blatant perjury! Is this the reason he’s escaping justice?
    Janet, you have the power to start a movement. All you need to do is collect signatures and network with students – and seek to get media exposure. Student groups thrive on getting media exposure. The Spring is the perfect time for creating a strong movement.
    Edmund Burk’s quote: “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing” doesn’t exclude woman. You would wonder why Matt doesn’t seem to care about William Camuti escaping justice. We know Matt is a “good man” – it makes me wonder. But maybe he’s trying very hard and hasn’t been successful.
    Your background and being a woman almost guarantees success – if you try very hard.

  3. Bill: Even better than a TV education, you could send kids to Tadzio for the right kind of learn’in. Who needs all that college stuff? Narrow minds know best.

  4. One wonders whether those greatly exercised any affront to their right to ban or desecrate the flag really believe in free speech. From the left one constantly sees attempts to ban any expression, sincere or satiric, of ideas in contrast to the liberal canon. Suppose the window sticker flag is the Confederate banner, would that be tolerated? Many recent campus rules say No.

    Example. If the campus communist youth wear Che t-shirts in celebration of the murderous career of Castro’s brother in arms, can offended rightists don a swastika armband in protest? For the media and campus authorities, crude as both symbols are, only one qualifies for inchoate definition of hate speech.

    This is not new and it may well be coming. The brown shirts were organized to combat anti free speech thuggery by communists. If the NSDAP rallies were not attacked violently by Reds there would never have been any Nazi paramilitary organizations. There would have been no need for them. History might have had fewer tragic pages writ in blood.

    The left cannot get it collective head around the truism that payback is a bitch. Yet history often plays out that way. No Holodomor, no Holocaust. If Allende did not coil anaconda-like around the liberties of the Chilean people there would never have been a Pinochet. If there is a sine qua non in the election of Donald Trump it is the lawlessness of Obama, and the supine reaction of the GOP leadership thereto, in not enforcing immigration laws.

    The veterans who marched nearby Hampshire College are blowback. Offensive behavior gets a reaction. It is normal and healthy. Since election day the left has by words and actions signaled that it wishes to escalate and confront. Gentlemen may cry peace, peace, but if there is no peace America’s hostile elite may find itself in a losing war.

    When push comes to shove spitters and rock throwers could find that men who have lived in a disciplined environment, the military, can kick their butts and then some. Even Pope Francis noted that insulting someone’s mother will not be seen as an exercise of free speech by all and anyone stupid enough to do it should not expect sympathy for the consequences.

  5. Make that “Freikorp REMFs. Sometimes, memory fails me. I’m not alone. It’s been fifty years since chien tranh my and American society seems to forgotten everything it learned. Chauvinistic jingoism leads to terrible tragedy.

  6. Once the Marines got hold of you, you never let go 🙂 Excellent Post !

  7. Beware those wily Christian Socialists, flag salesmen and children’s magazine publishers:

    http://www.cnn.com/2013/12/22/opinion/greene-pledge-of-allegiance-salute/

    http://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/rules-about-how-to-address-us-flag-came-about-because-no-one-wanted-to-look-like-a-nazi-180960100/

    If you want some fun reading, Google “Bellamy Salute Rex Curry”.

    Bottom line – expressions of speech/worship of a symbolic piece of cloth are free to exercise, or not.

    http://www.firstamendmentcenter.org/pledge-of-allegiance

  8. Make that, “Pill-box hats, hob-nailed boots, and, Sam Brown belts, would bring a touch of fashion to any fascist parade.”

    Bill: Storming a college campus won’t raise anyone’s IQ. What were those dolts after?

    • Khalid, the pro-American protesters raised the consciousness of the Dean, Faculty and students. The Dean put the flag up within a day or two. He was impressed. He was moved. He acted.
      And why disparage patriotism and patriotic Americans? Dolts? How do you arrive at that conclusion?

      • The national rag means different things to different people. No one has the right to force their beliefs on others. The college is perfectly correct in its attitude. You and your mob of “patriots” are not correct, in fact, you are way out of line. You might worship the flag. I might execrate it. Both our opinions are protected by the Constitution and Bill of Rights. Do you want to change that in some way? If your beef is with higher education, try learn’in your kids in front of the television. They’ll get a healthy ration of goofy jingoism from the TV.

        Bill: When ever I see some patriotic horse-shit with the word “veterans” in it, I know it’s a con.

        • The flag represents the USA which represents the Constitution and Bill of Rights you so highly value, the college saying the flag is oppressive is saying the Constitution and Bill of Rights are oppressive. This is the USA, having a US flag on a campus located in the USA is reasonable, justifiable and does NOT infringe or oppress anyones rights. Not having a flag on an American campus is unreasonable and FORCING their views on students who want the flag on campus.

          • Dan:
            Old Gory is the standard of American imperialism to much of the world. Revere it. Revile it. It’s just cloth. In uncertain political times, it sometimes takes on the characteristics of a fetish. Flag waving and Bible thumping seem like related activities. Both require the suspension of disbelief and an absence of criticism. Once Iraq War II takes off, you’ll be able to show your patriotism by driving your grand-kids down to the recruiting station. All that chauvinistic blather will ring hollow, when the flag draped coffins start coming home.

            One percent of the US population is presently taking the weight for the preservation of empire. When ten percent of the population become active combatants, it will be a brand-new world.

    • You might want to read something about Sam Browne (sic) belt history and use:

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sam_Browne_belt

  9. Freikorp RAMFs. Being a veteran doesn’t excuse being a fascist. Leave the kids alone.

    Glorious Leader, the elected POS, seems to bring out the Brownshirt in folks. A whole new era of nigger lynching and Jew baiting is just around the corner. So, dust off your sheets, and, get out in the streets. I wonder if the SS /Wehrmacht/Nazi Party memorabilia business has picked up some? Pill-box hats, hob-nailed boots,would bring a touch of fashion to any fascist parade

    • Khalid: What nonsense!
      Educate the kids! Correct them, when they’re wrong. Denounce their nutty professors!
      Such talk of SS/Brownshirts/Nazis/Fascists is hysterical!

    • Kahlid,breaks out the N word, either you are black and I the whole black people can use the N Word covers you or you think you have the liberal BS bases so covered it gives you the privilege to use that derogatory term. Either way hopefuly someday you will be dumb enough to spit that out around a Brother who will beat you like a drum.

      • Daniel:

        Been there. Done that. Still here to tell the tale. How about you? Where’d you do your bit? Got any experience behind that mouth?

        • Daniel:

          Never write checks with your mouth that your ass can’t cash. You learn that quick in certain environments. When I say “nigger lynching” and/or “Jew baiting” its part of a cut on alt-right boobs like yourself. Black folks enjoy the fun. Not hard to understand. Read more closely.

  10. And . . . there certainly is an attempt to drive prayer and Christian symbols out of the schools, workplaces, marketplaces and all public places . . . just follow the litigation. One public school stopped its many-decades production of Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, this year, ostensibly because for the first time it dawned on the principal of the school that the play detracted from “academic credit hours” . . .(it took about 20 hours to produce; no academic value, I guess in the kids learning/participating in a great work of literature/drama) . . . but apparently because a few parents complained the play ended with words “God bless us, everyone!” Whatever the true reason, the fact that the Christmas play was cancelled is evidence of the assault on Christmas. Remember, too that schools have had to go to court to continue signing Christmas carols at Christmastime.

  11. Texas v. Johnson, 491 U.S. 397. (https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/491/397/)

    That Scalia was one of the five justices for free speech is enough for me.

    “The opinion of the Court came down as a controversial 5–4 decision, with the majority opinion delivered by William J. Brennan, Jr. and Justices Thurgood Marshall, Harry Blackmun, Antonin Scalia, and Anthony Kennedy joining Brennan, with Kennedy also writing a concurrence.

    “The Court first considered the question of whether the First Amendment to the United States Constitution protected non-speech acts, since Johnson was convicted of flag desecration rather than verbal communication, and, if so, whether Johnson’s burning of the flag constituted expressive conduct, which would permit him to invoke the First Amendment in challenging his conviction.

    ‘The First Amendment specifically disallows the abridgment of “speech,” but the court reiterated its long recognition that its protection does not end at the spoken or written word. This was concluded based on the 1931 case Stromberg v. California (283 U.S. 359) which ruled the display of a red flag as speech, and the 1969 case Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District (393 U.S. 503), which ruled the wearing of a black armband as speech.

  12. Matt:
    All it takes for evil, secularism and anti-Americanism to triumph, is for good people to do and say nothing.

    I was so proud of those hundreds of veterans and others who stormed the campus of Hampshire College to display their pride in the American flag. They could have sat home silently as all the flags came down, one by one.
    I’m proud to be an American and I constantly praise and criticize my country.

    The flag is a symbol. It means many things to many people. Some people disrespect it (they got that right); as Americans we also have the free speech right to denounce them for doing so. It’s one thing to be a critic. It’s another to be disrespectful. I denounce the disrespectful.

    Voices should be raised against those who disrespect American symbols and traditions, and against those concerted efforts by the ACLU and many private individuals and businesses (including colleges) who seek to drive Christ out of Christmas and to drive religion out of America. I’m very proud of those who oppose the secularists. Remember the song: “Give me ten men who are stouthearted men who will fight for the right they adore; start me with ten . . . and I’ll soon give you ten-thousand more.” We need more stouthearted defenders!

    So, speak up . . . write . . . blog . . . sing . . . and count your blessings and preserve our American traditions including our Judaeo-Christian traditions. And while respecting the free speech and religious freedom rights of all, exercise your own.

    Let the light shine . . . but don’t be afraid to fight fire with fire!