Flags

Posted By Grim

Yesterday I linked to each the Castle and Cassandra; today, let's look at both of them together.  Cassandra has a simple photo essay entitled "How We Have Changed," contrasting the Iwo Jima photograph with what we have seen in Maine.  Kat at the Castle has a thought piece celebrating the liberty that allows flag desecration as part of the greater American tradition.

About a month ago, I wrote an ethics piece called "On the Flag," about this incident, which debated this proposition with the readers of Grim's Hall:

[T]he American flag is not something that can be owned by an individual, like a piece of property. It belongs to all of us, and its care to all of us. While an individual can buy a flag, if he does not take care of it properly -- or if he deliberately insults it -- any citizen is fully correct as a point of ethics to rescue it and restore it to the honor it is due.

I don't know whether or not it is correct as a point of law.  I suspect that, in at least some cases, there might be legal ramifications -- although all of these are subject to the wager of a jury, which is part of the law, so "the law" could easily end up ratifying a reasonable defense of the flag.  Indeed, there is some reason to believe that men like Jim Brossard will enjoy support from many quarters.

What I do think is that the flag belongs to all of us -- every American flag.  The flag is just a thing, yes:  but the particular thing is an idea of the honor of our nation.  To prove and defend that honor, Americans have wagered far more than a fine, and against worse dangers than a jury of their peers who might feel even as they do. 

Rightly so. 

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Flags

Yesterday I linked to each the Castle and Cassandra; today, let's look at both of them together.  Cassandra has a simple photo essay entitled "How We Have Changed," contrasting the Iwo Jima photograph with what we have seen in Maine.  Kat at the Castle has a thought piece celebrating the liberty that allows flag desecration as part of the greater American tradition.

About a month ago, I wrote an ethics piece called "On the Flag," about this incident, which debated this proposition with the readers of Grim's Hall:

[T]he American flag is not something that can be owned by an individual, like a piece of property. It belongs to all of us, and its care to all of us. While an individual can buy a flag, if he does not take care of it properly -- or if he deliberately insults it -- any citizen is fully correct as a point of ethics to rescue it and restore it to the honor it is due.

I don't know whether or not it is correct as a point of law.  I suspect that, in at least some cases, there might be legal ramifications -- although all of these are subject to the wager of a jury, which is part of the law, so "the law" could easily end up ratifying a reasonable defense of the flag.  Indeed, there is some reason to believe that men like Jim Brossard will enjoy support from many quarters.

What I do think is that the flag belongs to all of us -- every American flag.  The flag is just a thing, yes:  but the particular thing is an idea of the honor of our nation.  To prove and defend that honor, Americans have wagered far more than a fine, and against worse dangers than a jury of their peers who might feel even as they do. 

Rightly so. 

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