Americans burning American flag

[DasFX]

A passport a "symbol"" since when??. It is an essential!!! It is a tool ./a ticket/a passage. I don't wear my passport on my lapel.

Sure it is a symbol, you may not think it is one, but other sure see it as one. I've been waved through customs so many times by agents just because I have my Canadian passport (I insist they look at it though cause I want the stamp).

If a passport wasn't a symbol, then can I assume you would travel using any nations passport if it were allowed. Say I gave you an Iraqi passport. Both are books with information, but they are different.

 

[Ocean Breeze]

A passport a "symbol"" since when??. It is an essential!!! It is a tool ./a ticket/a passage. I don't wear my passport on my lapel.

Sure it is a symbol, you may not think it is one, but other sure see it as one. I've been waved through customs so many times by agents just because I have my Canadian passport (I insist they look at it though cause I want the stamp).

If a passport wasn't a symbol, then can I assume you would travel using any nations passport if it were allowed. Say I gave you an Iraqi passport. Both are books with information, but they are different.

a different perspective from mine. By applying symbolism ( in this way) to a passport also suggests prejudice.

to me a symbol is something like the logo for the 2010 Olympics. The ceremonies might be "symbolic" in nature......etc. Anyhow...this is getting into some abstract interpretations... and you have your perceptions /ideas and they happen to differ from mine. Not a biggie.

 

[Twila]

RE: Americans burning Ame

Would then a person who chose to fly the German Nazi flag have that same right?

Not if they flew it in Germany. It's illegal there.

 

[GL Schmitt]

A symbol is a thing which communicates that it stands for something else, a material object, or a concept like freedom, or victory, or whatever you mean by giving someone “the finger.”

A passport is a legal document which transfers certain rights and privileges to the bearer.


Meanwhile, back at the original discussion:



To quote one of my favourite contemporary American writers:

“You want to claim this land as the 'land of the free'? Then the symbol of your country cannot just be a flag. The symbol also has to be one of its citizens exercising his right to burn that flag in protest. Now show me that, defend that, celebrate that in your classrooms. Then you can stand up and sing about the 'land of the free.'"

You just can’t say it any plainer than Aaron Sorkin did in his 1995 screenplay of The American President.

 

[Ocean Breeze]

GL: good post. Like that quote. Says it very nicely.

thanks.

 

[johnnybgoodaaaaa]

RE: Americans burning Ame

Hmm, I'm a newbie here, but I would like to offer my opinion on the burning of a flag. I think someone who says someone should be deported for burning a flag is being ridiculous. I don't think someone should get in trouble with the law if they burn a flag. At the same time, I think that the American flag is suppose to symbolize, at least if you are an American, the belief in freedom, democracy, etc. If the Government goes against these beliefs, then you should burn the white house(haha, I know some Canadians might have something to say about that)not the flag that stands for what you are so pissed off that your government is not following. It's like a religious person burning his bible because someone else who follows the bible did something against it.