Sparrowhawk
10-01-03, 06:28 PM
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THE FLAG IS NO RAG
October 1, 2003 -- Anyone who cares to witness the orgy of disrespect and double standards now in its final throes at Nassau County Community College had better hurry: Its exhibit "Vexillology: The American Symbol in Art" closes today.
And not a day too soon, we say.
The presentation, at the college's Firehouse Gallery, is supposed to be a history of the American flag in contemporary art.
But it gives life, yet again, to the over-the-top garbage cooked up by the artist known as Dread Scott - specifically, his 1988 so-called work, "What is the Proper Way to Display the U.S. Flag?"
Scott's answer to that: Throw it on the floor and urge folks to step all over it.
His display consists of an American flag spread on the floor, a book for comments - and two anti-war photos, one from Vietnam, the other South Korea.
Yes, Scott - and the college geniuses who sought the display - are free to trash America's dearest, most unifying symbol.
The Supreme Court has said so.
Indeed, the flag itself stands for the very freedoms they so readily abuse.
But no law says they must trample it, or that, as Scott insists, not to do so is akin to giving up their right to free speech. Rather, they could have (and should have) freely chosen to honor the flag, and the nation.
Scott has had a long-running beef with this country - starting, as his name suggests, with its record on slavery. So be it.
But respect for the flag doesn't imply agreement with everything about America - only a bottom-line decision to be a part of it, for better or worse.
In that sense, the flag transcends internal politics. If you reject the flag, you reject the nation. And anyone who does, and still tries to remain a part of it, is nothing more than a hypocrite.
The college, meanwhile, has its own double standards. If it merely sought, for instance, to present the historical relevance of Scott's display, it could have done that with text and pictures.
Nor is it likely that officials would ever treat disrespectfully other symbols, such as, say, the Koran or images of Martin Luther King Jr. - nor should they.
No, this show was meant not as education or art, but as an anti-American screed, motivated, no doubt, by resentment of post-9/11 patriotism, and President Bush's War on Terror (one display is entitled "Emperor Bush").
How ironic that a war is being fought precisely to uphold the flag, protect the nation and safeguard the freedoms these folks freely take advantage of.
http://www.nypost.com/postopinion/editorial/6929.htm
THE FLAG IS NO RAG
October 1, 2003 -- Anyone who cares to witness the orgy of disrespect and double standards now in its final throes at Nassau County Community College had better hurry: Its exhibit "Vexillology: The American Symbol in Art" closes today.
And not a day too soon, we say.
The presentation, at the college's Firehouse Gallery, is supposed to be a history of the American flag in contemporary art.
But it gives life, yet again, to the over-the-top garbage cooked up by the artist known as Dread Scott - specifically, his 1988 so-called work, "What is the Proper Way to Display the U.S. Flag?"
Scott's answer to that: Throw it on the floor and urge folks to step all over it.
His display consists of an American flag spread on the floor, a book for comments - and two anti-war photos, one from Vietnam, the other South Korea.
Yes, Scott - and the college geniuses who sought the display - are free to trash America's dearest, most unifying symbol.
The Supreme Court has said so.
Indeed, the flag itself stands for the very freedoms they so readily abuse.
But no law says they must trample it, or that, as Scott insists, not to do so is akin to giving up their right to free speech. Rather, they could have (and should have) freely chosen to honor the flag, and the nation.
Scott has had a long-running beef with this country - starting, as his name suggests, with its record on slavery. So be it.
But respect for the flag doesn't imply agreement with everything about America - only a bottom-line decision to be a part of it, for better or worse.
In that sense, the flag transcends internal politics. If you reject the flag, you reject the nation. And anyone who does, and still tries to remain a part of it, is nothing more than a hypocrite.
The college, meanwhile, has its own double standards. If it merely sought, for instance, to present the historical relevance of Scott's display, it could have done that with text and pictures.
Nor is it likely that officials would ever treat disrespectfully other symbols, such as, say, the Koran or images of Martin Luther King Jr. - nor should they.
No, this show was meant not as education or art, but as an anti-American screed, motivated, no doubt, by resentment of post-9/11 patriotism, and President Bush's War on Terror (one display is entitled "Emperor Bush").
How ironic that a war is being fought precisely to uphold the flag, protect the nation and safeguard the freedoms these folks freely take advantage of.
http://www.nypost.com/postopinion/editorial/6929.htm