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Senate Distractions
As I write this entry, the Senate is preparing to vote on a constitutional amendment to ban the burning or desecration of the U.S. flag. Not long ago, it voted on legislation to "protect" marriage, by legally defining it as being between one man and one woman only.
This is what the Senate considers worthy of its time, while millions of Americans are unemployed/underemployed, our soldiers are dying on a fool's errand in Iraq, and other important, pressing issues too numerous to mention. Talk about fiddling while Rome burns!
While I personally would never burn a flag, because I consider doing so on the lines of burning books, I don't think we need an amendment protecting a symbol that is, after all, only a piece of cloth. While burning a flag is in bad taste and an extreme form of expressing one's opinion, doing so is simply a gesture. It hurts no real people, except maybe their feelings.
We've got real issues affecting millions of real people in the country to concern ourselves with. Let's concentrate on those and not be distracted by emotional hot button issues such as flag burning and "protecting" legal heterosexual monogamous marriage when we go to the polls in November.
Thoughts?
I don’t think it will happen in my life time but I seriously hope that in
the future people will not be thought of as man or woman, black or white;
just thought of as people. If two PEOPLE want to spend the rest of their
lives together taking care of each other (being able to use the same
benefits married couples have now) and being faithful to each other, then
they should be able to! It should not matter that they have different
sexual organs!
I think politicians need to feel they are doing something….So they come up
with
piddly-shit laws that they can pass to prove to the voters that they
can make laws!
Amen! No doubt because Dubya's poll numbers are so low, the
Republican-controlled congress is doing everything it can to get its base
fired up and out to the polls to keep their lousy asses filling seats in
Washington. It's the lowest sort of pandering, too, because it's not even
doing real good, even for the people whose support they're courting.
I think that John's comment is the real story, the current administration
needs some feel-good win so they grab on to legislation that really
resolves NOTHING. It takes away time and attention from the real issues at
hand, such as the ones you mention in your post.
I had not heard about this amendment, what a waste of time. I agree with
John's comment and your entry. With everything else going on in the world,
this is what the Senate is voting on?
Whether or not we agree with it being the right or wrong thing to do,
burning the flag is free expression of the sort that this country and its
bill or rights was create to protect.
It's a classic case of confusing the symbol with that which it symbolizes.
Really, restricting free speech is the biggest insult to the freedom our
flag stands for. What ever happened to "I may not agree with what you say,
but I will defend to the death your right to say it"?
I agree with Paula. On my visits to the USA I have always been amazed at
how most Americans display and respect their flag, so I suppose it must
seem a very important issue to many over there.
