Some Americans mock other cultures for treating cows with reverence and freaking out over uncovered women. They also wonder why the defaced Koran story was such a big deal. These are often the same Americans who can see a photo of a burning flag in some protestor's hands and not wonder why they'll feel more outrage over that than a photo of a child losing his arms to "collateral damage" in Iraq.
I wish I could get them to Consider:
If Newsweek was responsible for violence in the Middle East by breaking the defaced Koran story, does that mean news stations could be brought up on war crimes for showing people in other countries burning flags so shortly after September 11, making us want to bomb anywhere and kill anyone we could (oh yeah, and Bin Laden)?
If Puerto Rico were to become the 51st. state tomorrow, would there be outrage over having to change the flags hanging outside many homes? Would there be fights over which flags were more "American?" In a country where flag-burning is illegal, would there be proposed police action over this, going door to door, inspecting whether or not proper flags are displayed?
If peaceful protesting like flag burning is deemed illegal, are we just inviting people who don't agree with our government to do the only other thing that seems to get a rise out of the masses: acts of violence on percieved accomplices to the system (which I'm sure involves the Veteran's Hospital I work for)?
When people like Hilary Rodham Clinton mention flag burning to cross burning in the same sentence, and I find scattered around the waiting room where I work a magazine about modern Catholicism named America--nothing added to or before the title, no irony, just America--is it any wonder that I think America is heading towards becoming a theocracy where flags are the new crosses and the Constitution is as understood as little as the Bible is these days?
Whether or not you think the thoughts are extreme, you have to realize that this is, without a doubt, an attempt to reduce all forms of protest to a mutter under our breaths. The only action the government wants us to do is, to borrow from Chomsky, march in a parade together. Nothing else.
Don't believe me? Think about the kid who refused to stand up for the National Anthem at school. Really, all he did was what everyone for the war was telling those against it.
He sat down and shut up.
And he still got in trouble.
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