Today is probably the most fitting day to display the flag. It's also a good time for my rant about the irony of flag desecration.
Here we have a photo of Abbie Hoffman at the 1968 Democratic convention and a shot of an unidentified McCain supporter at a rally last year. Many of the same people who were outraged by Hoffman's shirt would say the other guy is showing his love of the United States of America.
What makes one shirt an act of desecration and the other an act of patriotic zeal? Hint: it's not vertical stripes versus horizontal ones. It's whether the wearer is on your side. That means desecration is really about opinions and words, not the actual flag.
The flag is a symbol. Symbols are secondary to the things they symbolize, like, oh, freedom of speech. Banning flag desecration would diminish the symbol you're trying to protect.
Some people don't see it that way because they believe freedom of speech protects only opinions they agree with, not those of their opponents. But popular speech doesn't need protection. The flag doesn't need protection. What it stands for does.
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