flag-burning

[danohu]

palmer1984 just posted a meme that touches on flag-burning. I've always been bewildered by the (mainly American?) objection to burning flags. But if you accept that flag-burning is Bad and Wrong...

How do True Patriots care for their ageing flags? Are they stored indefinitely? Given heroic burial (cremation presumably isn't an option)? Is there a patch of desert somewhere, where old flags fly until they disintegrate completely?

The military are big on flags and big on rules; they must have some baroque procedure for getting rid of the old ones.

Also: I've only come across the obsession with flag-burning in an American context. Are there equally small-minded patriots in the UK and elsewhere?

Comments

[oedipamaas49.livejournal.com]

did you miss a 'not' at some point there?

either way, I'm confused.

Why do you think British and American flags are fair game, but others not? Is that just because you, as British, feel you don't have the right to criticise weaker countries? If a Chadian activist wanted to burn her country's flag, what would be wrong with that?

[palmer1984.livejournal.com]

For instance, burning the flags of newly independent African countries in the 60s would not have been appropriate :).

I think it would be pretty racist for a British person to burn the flag of an ex-colony just after it had been liberated.

If a Chadian activist wanted to burn her country's flag, what would be wrong with that?

Nothing.

[palmer1984.livejournal.com]

So yes, there should have been a not there! Sorry for the mess of comments trying to fix this :)