An event at which half the participants are trampling on the flag. It is a measure of how far most of the participants on this blog (except Rachel and maybe Melinda) are from the America that I (and the other noni-intellectuals with whom I associate) grew up in, that they would think it appropriate to trample (or let their kids trample) a flag.

Maybe it is time to move to Poland.

Please do.

Did you miss the part where she described how people were mending the flag? That this was the reason for the flag to layed across the field? So it could be sewn. And how children were trampling (playing) around on a "half a football field-sized" flag?

Maybe you should move to Poland.

The original poster is right. Every Boy Scout in America knows that trampling the flag is a severe sign of disrespect.

I'm more than a little shocked.

that someone would write about her burgeoning patriotism upon seeing people "dancing" on the flag, without even a hint of ironic awareness as to the basics of flag desecration.

And I don't use that word in an uber-religious, boy-is-my-blood-boiling sense. But I can't believe the author missed her chance at the whole "dissent and disregard for outdated values is true patriotism" angle. Is the author that restrained, or simply dense?

No, I don't think the author is dense - but I do think you are.

<link>

Check this out, look at the pictures - and tell me this is "flag desecretion". Do you actually think that the Obama campaign would hold an event so that people could "dance" on and "trample" the American flag? Do you really think bloggers on Slate are the first to notice this - and that's why it wasn't in the news? IF anyone had desecreted the flag in an Obama fundraiser - don't you think every newspaper in the country would have covered it by now? Good grief!

brymulder:

The original poster is right. Every Boy Scout in America knows that trampling the flag is a severe sign of disrespect.

I'm more than a little shocked.

I too was a boy scout--actually, technically only a cub scout, but I digress....We could also interpret that the children (operative word here) playing on the flag--and the parents mending it--was a metaphor for the power and embrace of what it is to be an American. I'd equate the kids on the flag to children climbing all over dad or mom on the couch.

When I rad that blog I thought to myself that the wing nuts are going to have a cow over this! Little did I know that people on the Fray would have a cow over this!

Get over it people- little toddlers playing on the flag is not 'flag desecration'. It's just toddlers being toddlers.

How about some context. Two situations:

1. At a military funeral, a protester grabs a flag off the coffin, throws it on the ground, and begins trampling it.

2. At a preschool, kids are making large flags out of brightly-colored construction paper on the floor; they occasionally step on their completed projects while wandering around.

Do you treat both "descrations" the same? I would argue that it is important to be able to distingush between contexts and apply rules accordingly, and with appropriate flexibility.

Wow...

This is one of those things that has always most amazed me about the flag issue: people who are so outraged over what is done to an effigy, and the limited, rigid rules they have for how to treat it. And the most amazing, and appalling thing for me is that those same people are usually just fine with trampling of the rights and freedoms that the *real* flag, our country, is supposed to represent! (such as freedom of expression, freedom from warrantless surveillance, habeous corpus, and that sort of stuff...)

Oh, and I don't consider myself an intellectual, altho by the definition a lot of ppl like Palin seem to have of "ppl who grew and learned and have a more complicated and flexible world-view than what they were raised to believe," I guess I am...

Carolle

Why did the author allow her toddler to take a roll on the flag? You have to teach respect of traditons like honoring the flag to children, they won't learn it on their own. It seemed like she was amused at what her kid had done. Maybe there was a bit of anti-establishment humour to be had at the hands of a child who sees none of the pomp of either the grand old flag or the grand old flag mending party. I can appreciate that as well.

Not to take this too far, but there are certain forms of respect that should be shown in society and walking on the flag in any sense should not be tolerated. I don't care how big it was, it should still be treated with respect. Since they were children, they should have been educated on proper etiquitte regarding the flag and how it should be treated with respect. The same goes for standing at the baseball game and removing your hat during the National Anthem. I am only 31 years old, but I know that participating in an activity like this where I grew up (Springfield, Illinois...the back drop of Obama's canidacy annoucement) would not be tolerated. If my parents did talk to me, I bet somebody elses would have.

By the way, why does somebody have to be a wing-nut to think this is disrespectful?

Really, name calling? Is that how you want your point to be received? I don't think it is a purposful flag dance to disrespect America, but that doesn't mean that what they did wasn't disrespectful. The children don't know better, but the parents should.

phpeter:

Not to take this too far, but there are certain forms of respect that should be shown in society and walking on the flag in any sense should not be tolerated. I don't care how big it was, it should still be treated with respect. Since they were children, they should have been educated on proper etiquitte regarding the flag and how it should be treated with respect. The same goes for standing at the baseball game and removing your hat during the National Anthem....

Why should walking on the flag 'not be tolerated'? Should criticizing the president 'not be tolerated' also? This is a free society. Every form of expression should be tolerated. Not just tolerated, but accepted as divergent voices in a free society. The Supreme Court has already ruled that flag burning is an acceptable form of free speech. I don't see how you can say it 'shouldn't be tolerated' in this society.

There are many lessons that parents need to pass down to their kids. But some of these hoary old customs should just be left behind in the dust bin of history.

Why should walking on the flag 'not be tolerated'? Should criticizing the president 'not be tolerated' also? This is a free society. Every form of expression should be tolerated. Not just tolerated, but accepted as divergent voices in a free society. The Supreme Court has already ruled that flag burning is an acceptable form of free speech. I don't see how you can say it 'shouldn't be tolerated' in this society.

There are many lessons that parents need to pass down to their kids. But some of these hoary old customs should just be left behind in the dust bin of history.

Why have a pretentious flag mending event then if the whole idea of protecting this symbol is jst a hoary old custom? This is what happens when Liberals attempt to use conservative symbolism for their own messages. It is like when people were wearing t shirts saying that Jesus was a community organizer. Who do you see as your intended audience and can you understand how ridiculous you may appear to them?