Posted on 04/16/2008 9:25:16 AM PDT by nancyvideo
VIDEO: Maine College Republicans have posted a video showing the desecration of our American flag at the University of Maine, Farmington, by an 'art' student. Vet restrained from picking flags up off the ground.
Alright, I am a student at UMF. So please, let me set some things straight.
First of all, the tiny flags were not placed in the way so people had to walk on the flags. There was plenty of room to avoid walking on them altogether.
Second, they were not real flags! They were made out of duct-tape.
The student is a woman, not a man.
What does that figure have to do with the topic of this project? There is no connection and no need for that to be brought up in this discussion.
What purpose does this comment have? You do not know her personal story behind her being at college at 40. You do not have the right to judge others. This comment was unnessacary and childish.
Um, before you go writing to the president of the University of Maine, you may want to actually check which college this took place at. I am amazed at how many people here do not know even the basic facts about this. It took place at the University of Maine Farmington, run by a different president. Get yours facts together, please.
Fine. Lets see some students there produce flags, made out of duct tape, of Cuba, Palestine, the gay Rainbow flag, all muslim flags, etc right in the same place.
The student is a woman, not a man.
Exactly! He prefers to be called Loretta! Everyone please stop oppressing Stan, I mean, Loretta!
Dear Mr. XXXXX: Thanks very much for your message. While I personally found the art project disgusting, since I would never disrespect the flag, our American First Amendment protections include the right to free speech and artistic expression, even speech that is repugnant and unpleasant and offensive. UMF, as a teaching and learning institution, has an obligation to foster debate and disagreement about difficult subjects -- this is an essential part of our democracy. Thanks for your expression of your point of view. And if you yourself are a Veteran, then my deepest thanks for your service and sacrifice. Sincerely, Theodora J. Kalikow, President.
She seems to be into respecting the First Amendment in her little college. I wonder how she feels about The Second? I'm gonna ask her.
I think a serious point is being overlooked. The purpose of the piece was to generate discussion, and I assume the artist chose her subject matter with a full awareness of how heated the discussion could become; and I believe it would be accurate to say that discussion is being generated, both from liberal and conservative viewpoints alike. It isn’t my place to say who is right or wrong, but I do think an important goal was achieved through this demonstration, it has caused more and more people to think and become opinionated in some way or another in regards to how our country is run. It sparked interest, and regardless of pride or protest, it has created a drive in people to care about things happening around them. And in such a tense and volatile political climate, there is nothing worse than indifference.
Yeah. That is some “serious” point being overlooked.
That theme you espouse that pushing people’s buttons to combat indifference is not only appropriate but desirable is no different than the idiotic liberals who feel that dissent is the highest form of patriotism.
Dissent purely for the sake of conforming to ideological guidelines (which is what liberals have been doing since GWB took over seven years ago) is as misguided, stupid and wrong as what these immature, ignorant “students” have been doing in their gleeful participation in this asinine “assignment” intended solely to piss people off.
And you say that is good? And right? So, you probably think that the activities of the Westboro Baptist Church are entirely appropriate and within their First Amendment rights as American citizens?
With freedom of speech comes responsibility. Engaging in activity, sponsored by a supposed institution of higher learning that is intended SOLELY to inflame people is an ABDICATION of that responsibility, both on the part of the “institution of higher learning” and the individuals who thought this was the way to make a point.
There is one thing more pathetic than immature college age people who conclude that they know everything they need to learn in life to be able to pass authoritative judgement on something, and that would be the adults who impart them with undeserved moral authority to give weight to their one dimensional shallow conclusions, their parents, school authorities and pandering politicians who pretend to hang on their every word.
THIS is what happened back in the Sixties, when radicals were allowed to take over colleges in this country. The Marxists, Communists and Socialists who were the movers and the shakers back then now hold positions of power in the government and industry. They inhabit universities and the media as well. These are the same people. If you doubt me, William Ayers is a Distinguished Professor of Education at the University of Illinois at Chicago. He should be serving a life sentence.
This entire activity is SHAMEFUL and DISGRACEFUL. Every single person involved in this from the Chancellor down to the snot-nosed adolescent standing on the flag owes a personal apology to the courageous veteran who had the guts to point out stupidty, disrespect and boorish behavior to people who want to use the First Amendment as a shield to carry out their hateful behavior.
As Ann Coulter so accurately stated, freedom of speech is a one-way ratchet for liberal traitors.
And by the way: Welcome to Free Republic.
I personally don’t give a Rat’s Ass about where this took place. That it took place at all is reprehensible.
Oh. That's different. I am curious though...what is a "real" flag? Is there a special factory that makes "real" flags, kind of the same way there might be a specially authorized factory to produce kosher hot dogs?
When our POW's were in the Hanoi Hilton, they secretly manufactured a flag from scraps of cloth and hid it. Every day, they would pull the flag out and recite the Pledge of Allegiance. They risked their LIVES to show their respect to the American flag and what it symbolizes.
If you can convince those men that their flag was any less real than your "duct-tape flags" or that your "duct-tape flag" is less real than a flag flying above the USS Arizona, I want to hear how you are going to do that.
Most “Art” = having a temper tantum on canvas (or another medium)
idiots.
They must be a pair of liberal future teachers. Notice the code words;
The purpose of the piece was to generate discussion...
You do not have the right to judge others.
Both of them are ignoring the U.S. Flag code. Both of them, being liberals, choose which symbolism is right. It's okay to them to walk on replica of a flag. But, it's not okay to criticize such displays of ignorance and debasement.
I noticed that.
I am still fuming over it.
I think, for me, the contrast of the behavior of our POW’s in Hanoi to what these “students” were doing is what I cannot get past.
Starving, tortured, beaten, sick, but caring enough to risk DEATH by brutal beating just to hide a FLAG made out of scraps of scavenged cloth, so they could bring it out each day, face to the east and recite the Pledge of Allegiance.
And these SNOT NOSED BRATS have the AUDACITY to DELIBERATELY walk on it. It just boggles my mind.
I’m not saying that you dont have the right to critize anything. I dont agree with what was done, and I did not walk on the flag, however, I just wanted to let everyone know the facts about it because not everyone knew all the facts. That was just what I was trying to do. Keep on critizing. And personal attacks are a little childish. Lets keep this discussion civilized. K Thanks.
Go back to your hole, comrade!
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