Voltaire is rolling over in his grave
With the right-wing crazies in power again, the House of Representatives has voted for a constitutional amendment banning flag burning. Although it doesn’t pragmatically matter whether or not people can legally burn flags, this seems like a huge symbolic battle. The proponents of the amendment claim that this will safegaurd the symbol of our freedom, and burning a flag is disrespectful to the soldiers who have died defending it in the past. However, as this article notes, “if the flag needs protection at all, it needs protection from members of Congress who value the symbol more than the freedoms that the flag represents.” Impinging on our freedoms to honour those selfsame freedoms seems like exactly the sort of thing that the flag stands against. This goes right back to one of my favourite quotes: “I may not agree with what you say, but I will defend with my life your right to say it.”
I love that quote and I completely agree with it — the way the government treats our freedoms is frightening, I often wonder if they actually understand what they’re doing or if they just make laws like they would live their own lives not realizing the true impact of such regulations. *sigh* its very frustrating. Also, on a side note I just wanted to say that I really enjoy reading your journal, you post such interesting things that I don’t seem to find out about from any other sources.
I’m glad you like my blog! I’ve always wondered if people actually read most of these things. Thanks for posting.
To quote (“paraphrase”; I don’t remember this exactly, and grabbed it off some random website) from The American President:
And Voltaire’s first name was Francois?
Wow. Way to call my mistakes! On further inquiry, the page where I got the quote had a typo. According to Wikipedia, “Voltaire” was the pen name of François-Marie Arouet, though the Literature Network claims his name was François-Marie Arouet de Voltaire. Strangely, parents were named François and Marie (is that some kind of crazy French tradition?). Thanks for catching that, and I’ll change the title of this entry.
I really like the quote! Thanks for sharing.
Frightening Decision
I was listening to that story on the news, and the ramifications are frightening. It passed in the House, and people believe it should go through the Senate pretty easily. I understand why it is an issue, especially now when patriotism is runny rampant through the country, but as you and other posters pointed out, its just another step toward eliminating freedoms supposed to be preserved by the symbol of the flag. Its not the object, its the ideals, and Congress is losing the ideals in perserving the object.
On a nice note, things are looking more positive for stem cell research. A proposal to provide an increased budget and open up more stem cell lines has gotten through the House, I believe, and looks positive in the Senate. Bush says he would never sign it, but my hope is Congress could convince him otherwise. ^_^