The Flag Is No Rag

http://www.nypost.com/images/postop/editorial.gif


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

It makes you wonder just what, parents are getting for the
money they are paying to EDUCATE their children. I will bet
anything that a Commie Propessor is behind it. These young
people in college today are to eager to be brainwashed. They
never stop to thing just how much BLOOD has been spilled
to give them the freedom of speech, and the lives of our BRO-
THERS who made this country so great. If these are the next
people to run this country, then I hope I'm 6 feet under be-
fore it happens. :mad:

I'm with you on that one richgitz, it looks like I will have to uphold my duty to this country and start kicking some ass.

You got that right CPLRapoza. The only thing is that should have
been done, when they were young. Some parents FAIL to give
a direction to follow in life. I'm not putting down young people.
but some can really push you to the edge of rage. There was a
college on the news that is trying to sue the goverment for hav-
ing Recruiters on campus. These are the people who will event-
ualy work for the ACLU or some other Commie backed Org. I got
to stop here, because this making me so P***ed off.

My kids sing the Star Bangled Banner and recite the Pledge of Allegence - This fills my heart with pride and eyes with tears. I cry for those who are so grossly undereducated on what old glory stand for, those who bled for her, and those to come. I have the flags of my grand father and fathers funerals - the same flag that they fought for covered them on their final day on earth.

I can't stop them, because ignorance overwelms these people. But take this as a warning, every action in life has a consequance, pray a Marine is not in your mist to deliver it.

Semper Fi Brothers.

MW

I have to agree with everyone that has posted! You about said it all. I've always said, and always will! Yes, you have that right to destruct and deface a piece of cloth that I call my Nations Flag, our representation of America. But I will also use my right to go to jail for kicking your @ss!!