Reply #90: You're right... He's always been against flag burning

[Tinoire]

As a 20 year vet, frankly I could care less if people use the flag as toilet paper and don't get riled up about the issue one way or another because to me it's just a ridiculous, manipulative piece of cloth that both the anti and pro FBA people are making too much of an issue over.

That said. It is still the flag of this country. A flag that was supposed to stand for good and decency. A flag for which many, whether right or wrong, went and shed their blood when asked. It used to be a flag that was respected and admired by down-trodden people all over the world who believed the words "Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. ... "

Kucinich is the son of a poor family that spent many lights sleeping in their car and he loves his country and its people. He also loves the flag and all it was supposed to stand for. What he wants to do is restore the honor and dignity of that flag.

The second time I saw Kucinich was in a room full of REAL patriots- it was at the Veterans for Peace Conference in San Francisco Friday & Saturday.

The room was packed with men like S Brian Wilson, a Vietnam veteran who in 1987 had his legs cut off at Concord, California, when he lay down in front of a train to protest a Naval train carrying weapons headed for Central America.

Kate Berrigan, the daughter of Father Berrigan

Rachel Corrie's parents Craig and Cindy Corrie

Representatives from Military Families Speak out

and hundreds of vets, disabled vets who lost a limb or part of their life for that flag.

And they, they too, would like to see that flag honored.

In that light is how you look at Kucinichs vote of the FBA.

Blind rage is not an answer. The blind rage to destroy out of anger and pain are not the answer. The answer is to fix the problem and on that I agree with him 100%. And once Kucinich is in office and that problem is getting fixed, we can all once again start feeling joy when we see that flag waiving in the wind.

I would love to bold for once feel proud to be an American in a world where the image of Americans went down long before Bush ever stepped into office. Bush simply gave that image its coup de grace but from Vietnam to Gulf I to Yugoslavia to Afghanistan to Gulf II, people of the world sat back appalled and Americans like me, were ashamed of what was done by imperialist scoundrels holding that flag. Put that flag in good hands- and let me be proud of it again. No need to burn the damned thing- just get it out of the gutter, clean it up and fly it again.