America is not its flag, it's the ability to burn the flag.

[originalpckelly]

America is the ability to say, "fuck you," to our politicians and not go missing the next day.
America is the right to a trial by your peers that happens sometime within the decade of being accused.
America is the right to appear before a judge.
America is the right to be listened to by our politicians and have them actually act like they give a fuck about us.
And when they don't...to burn a flag that is the symbol of the broken nation.

Too bad the flag isn't made of glass, I'd have taken a hammer to it: to symbolize the broken government, the shattered American dream, and the broken promises of the politicians.

Oddly enough, I expect the greatest criticism of this act of flag burning to come from those who view "the constitution" as a brand of toilet paper.

The flag does nothing for you, except unite you in times of nationalistic hedonism. The US Constitution was at least supposed to protect you from the government and more important: yourself.

Too bad more don't understand it.

[hobbit709]

1. It is free spech as defined by SCOTUS.

Just like many things that I don't agree with.

[xchrom]

2. Indeed. Nt

[TheMastersNemesis]

3. If The GOP Wins

As much as the GOP uses (abuses) our flag I wonder if it has any meaning if they win in November. I do not support the kind of country they want as much I do not support any GOP idiot. They are liars, hate mongers, racists, bigots, etc. The real flag of the GOP is the Confederate flag. A vote for the GOP is a vote for that flag if you listen to all the hate rhetoric being spewed out.

What if someone burned that particularly in South Carolina. That might be more appropriate.

[jberryhill]

4. Sure, you can burn your own flag

You can burn your trousers if you like, too.

So, explain me how you have a right to take someone else's flag and burn it.

Sorry, you can burn whatever you want to, so long as you are in a place where you can lawfully burn something, but you do not have the right to take things which do not belong to you, or have not been given to you by the owner, and burn them.

It doesn't matter whether it is a flag or not.

[TheMastersNemesis]

5. No Necessarily

The flag burners are not necessarily OWS. I have seen nothing in the news that verifies who these people were. Oh, the media does not report anything significant these days.

[jberryhill]

6. I don't care who they were

If they weren't OWSers, then why are people like the OP pretending that it was okay to take stuff from City Hall and burn it?

Either defend what they did, or disown it. But there is no justification for busting and burning stuff from a public building.

[Skinner]

7. Flag burning is protected speech under the First Amendment. But that doesn't mean I have to like it.

I would prefer not to see someone (ostensibly) on my side doing something so inflammatory and self-defeating. Those people who torched the flag in Oakland aren't helping our cause.

[kctim]

8. It is also the right to believe

that those who burn the flag are thankless assholes who do not deserve our support.

No, the US Constitutions most important feature is not to protect one from oneself. Talk about more people needing to understand the Constitution, sheesh.
Besides, if that ridiculous notion were true, wouldn't that mean it would be governments job to ban burning the flag in order to protect you from getting your ass kicked if you decided to burn the flag?

[SidDithers]

9. Sure, but the flag represents different things to different people...

and many of them are going to be quite pissed off when someone exercises their free speech rights to burn that flag.

Sid

[redqueen]

10. I'm just gonna put this here

[baldguy]

11. If you honor what the Flag represents, you must accept that some will wish to destroy it.

And that doesn't make them your enemy.

Sadly, too many can't see this self-evident truth.

[brooklynite]

12. Nobody was arrested for burning a flag in DC...

...it is possible that someone was arrested for burning a flag that they didn't own.

That said, while the right exist, it is a right that shouldn't be invoked. Not because the flag is a hallowed object that should be venerated, but because it is a politically stupid thing to do. The flag represents the entire country, the 99% as well as the 1%, the Democrats as well as the Republicans. Burning the flag repudiates the entire country, every person and every instition.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

13. Do you feel the same way about this?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/101436707

[backscatter712]

14. That can be construed as a violent threat against a specific person.

Burning a U.S. flag has no such violent threats - it's a political statement.

If you don't like that it's legal to make political statements in that way, tough shit.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

15. Not without additional actions

Burning a U.S. flag has no such violent threats - it's a political statement.

They are both political statements and protected speech.

If you don't like that it's legal to make political statements in that way, tough shit.

I don't have a problem with either, clearly some do.

My point in bring this up is that is we choose to defend such actions as political speech, then we should defend all political speech, even if we find it repugnant

[MineralMan]

16. Of course it is within every person's rights to burn the flag.

That's especially true if the flag belongs to you. However, whether it's a good idea is another matter. It seems to me that if you are trying to attract people to an organization that claims to represent the 99%, it might be wiser not to burn the US Flag. For a lot of people - more than you might think - that flag is a powerful symbol. Some have served in the military. Others were Scouts. They put quite a bit of importance on the flag, as is also their right.

A flag-burning is an act that inspires lots of feelings. For very few people are those good feelings. By burning a flag taken from a city hall on the steps of that city hall, those who did it, whoever they are, pretty much thumbed their noses at everyone who does take offense at desecration of that symbol. They pretty much guaranteed that none of those people are going to look kindly on an organization that did such a thing. And believe me, they think that Occupy Oakland burned that flag.

So, what purpose did the flag burning serve? To encourage people to support the Occupy movement? I don't think so. To make it clear that the Occupy movement has the best interests of the 99% in mind? I don't think so.

Burning that flag was an incredibly stupid thing for Occupy Oakland to do, and they are going to be the group blamed for it. Not a good move at all. The hero of all this is the woman there who cried out not to burn the flag, when others were calling for it to be burned. She also ran up and tried to put the flames out. She's the hero in that event. The burners? Not so much. They ensured that many, many people who are in the real 99% will have nothing whatsoever to do with the organization that claims to represent them.

Very stupid move.

[Uncle Joe]

17. I believe some people have turned it into an idol, which in turn only serves to weaken the U.S.

If we as Americans have the power, right and will to burn our flag as a respected form of free speech when we're in great political duress, emotional power is removed or reduced from those enemies abroad doing so as a means to wound us.

We then would be more likely to listen to their legitimate grievance, if they have any instead of behaving as Pavlovian dogs slobbering in preprogrammed, wanton ignorance.

I do believe far too much emphasis has been placed on the superficial aspects of the flag at the expense of Constitutional substance in American thought.

Thanks for the thread, originalpckelly.