flag sag

sen orrin hatch (r-ut) went on washington journal the other day to talk up support for his flag "desecration" amendment even tho he knew it was about to fall one vote short of passage. [pro and con gops gave me some surprises, tho: mcconnell (ky) and bennett (ut) voted no along with the expected chafee (ri); i'm wondering what happened to snowe (me), collins (me), sununu (nh), graham (sc), hagel (ne), and, most of all, specter (pa), not to mention 14 dems who voted yes!]

my first reaction was to that word. it implies the flag's a sacred object, not a secular one. betsy ross and george washington climb sassafras mountain and fast 40 days and 40 nights till an angel reveals the design. then they scrape some root bark, take it to beantown, and have a tea party as betsy sews and george cuts stars. he drops her off in philly and heads up to brooklyn to show his colors to the enemy then cut and run so he can live to fight another day.

or maybe serious superpatriots claim it's been sanctified by the blood of heroes who died for it. but that could be said of flags of many nations. did the amendment include them?

far as i know, non-americans don't have our kind of emotional attachment to flags. flags are national symbols and that's that.

sure, they fly them on national holidays and for other political events. it wouldn't surprise me if they face them when they sing their national anthems at sports events. but they don't seem to see flags as extensions of their gonads.

maybe it's the music. don't tell me nothing stirs in you when the frenchies at rick's stand and sing the marseillaise in defiance of the germans in casablanca.

i don't know many national anthems. are any besides ours about a flag? maybe singing or hearing the star-spangled banner gets our blood up. maybe we keep passions in high gear for a few hours after the song by cheering for our favorite athletes.

the association is bound to stick in our emotional memories.

and that makes us vulnerable.

foreign protesters we see burn our flag on tv may not feel so strongly about their own flags, but they seem to intuit that burning ours will upset us.

hearing of americans doing it both infuriates and perplexes. protesters may sincerely believe they communicate a valid message, but what comes across looks like bullying.

bullies sense vulnerability and exploit it: they focus their attacks on weaknesses. that's effective strategy when used against a strong foe, but it's cowardly when the strong aim it at the innocent and unready.

it doesn't have to be a physical attack. words are powerful weapons, especially if repeated a lot or in too many sound bites for the opposition to rebut them all or an overwhelming number of targeted threats keeps an audience's anxiety level above the redline. whether the target's flag burners, the new york times, immigrants, gays, activist judges, trial lawyers, whistleblowers, environmentalists, evolution, abortion, stem cell research, libs, or dems, it's just as cowardly when politicians exploit voters' emotional weaknesses.

if the people and the press let bullies pile on again and again, eventually a wannabe king becomes a de facto king, even if untitled and uncrowned.

bullies are cowards. they deny their conscience.

the only way to stop them is to stand up to them.