{"id":1612,"date":"2001-12-04T07:31:04","date_gmt":"2001-12-04T12:31:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/?p=1612"},"modified":"2001-12-04T07:31:04","modified_gmt":"2001-12-04T12:31:04","slug":"flag_waving","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2001\/12\/04\/flag_waving.html","title":{"rendered":"Flag-waving"},"content":{"rendered":"

Asian Bastard provides a fine rant<\/a> about mindless flag-waving — inspired by some doofus in a van, proudly festooned, who showed all-too-common disregard for approaching emergency vehicles, even though everyone else was pulling over.<\/p>\n

I could never quite articulate just why all this flag flying bothered me, but now I know: when the display of the American flag becomes a fad, a mindless display, a pompous badge, it turns that act from something noble and purposeful to something as vacuous as wearing a t-shirt with a Nike swoosh. I have more respect for those who burn the flag in protest than guys like Minivan Man; the flag-burners at least recognize the importance of the flag, even if they reject what it stands for.
\nNo one should display the American flag, or any other symbol, unless they mean it; and if they mean it, they should live by it. If we don’t, that flag might as well be a Jack in the Box antenna head.<\/p>\n

Amen, brother.<\/p>\n

Of course, valor in the face of defending the homeland doesn’t necessarily imply intelligence, or even politeness. But it does, on a higher level, imply a moral virtue — which is, in turn, squandered when you act like a frickin’ doofus.<\/p>\n

This is certainly not the first rant I’ve read on this general topic — how there seems to be an inverse relationship between driving consideration\/quality and the likelihood of the vehicle being decorated with a flag, a Jesus-fish, a “Baby On Board” placard, or something similarly implying special status. I don’t know if it’s true, or if it’s simply that such folks are more visible targets of ire. But in either case, it’s certainly rant-worthy.<\/p>\n

If you’re going to make a point of declaring your civic, moral, or paternal virtue — then follow up your “words” with deeds. Otherwise, you not only deny your beliefs, but you do so in a very public (and therefore damaging <\/i>to those beliefs) fashion.<\/p>\n

Hmmm. Sort of a mini-rant from me, too.<\/p>\n

(Via Xkot<\/a>)<\/small><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Asian Bastard provides a fine rant about mindless flag-waving — inspired by some doofus in a van, proudly festooned, who showed all-too-common disregard for approaching emergency vehicles, even though everyone…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1612","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-zt-pc"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1271,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2002\/02\/03\/im_as_patriotic.html","url_meta":{"origin":1612,"position":0},"title":"I’m as patriotic as the next guy, but …","author":"***Dave","date":"Sun 3-Feb-02 4:13pm","format":false,"excerpt":"... did we really need a pre-game show full flag-waving paens to \"freedom-loving Americans everywhere,\" complete with football players reciting (badly) quotations from famous Americans? Did Summerall and Madden need...","rel":"","context":"In "Fourth Estate"","block_context":{"text":"Fourth Estate","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/media\/fourth-estate"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":51759,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/07\/16\/waving-the-confederate-flag.html","url_meta":{"origin":1612,"position":1},"title":"Waving the Confederate flag","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 16-Jul-15 4:14pm","format":false,"excerpt":"As part of the crowd greeting President Obama in Oklahoma City, we got this particular band of flag-wavers:http:\/\/www.motherjones.com\/mojo\/2015\/07\/obama-greeted-by-confederate-flags-oklahoma-cityActually, this demonstrates a good thing: the Confederate Battle Flag may be getting kicked off of official government displays, but the First Amendment means that individuals can still wave it around to reveal\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/CKAQt4GW8AQ0sWj5B15D.jpgimgmax%3D660.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/CKAQt4GW8AQ0sWj5B15D.jpgimgmax%3D660.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/CKAQt4GW8AQ0sWj5B15D.jpgimgmax%3D660.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":51704,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/07\/08\/a-confederate-flag-ban-too-far-i-think.html","url_meta":{"origin":1612,"position":2},"title":"A Confederate flag ban too far, I think","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 8-Jul-15 5:09pm","format":false,"excerpt":"I'm hardly a fan of the Confederate battle flag, the country it represented, or the cause of slavery behind it. But if fallen CSA soldiers are interred in federal war cemeteries, then a once-a-year, family-driven, one-day display of the Confederate battle flag on their graves seems historically appropriate to me.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":51609,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/06\/24\/is-the-american-flag-next.html","url_meta":{"origin":1612,"position":3},"title":""Is the American flag next?"","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 24-Jun-15 2:04pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Um ... no. That seems unlikely. Unlike the Confederate battle flag, the American flag is, actually, our national flag.Mind you, Americans have a fetish about the stars and stripes that could probably bear with some moderation. But there's a significant difference between the social ostracizing of the battle flag of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":130888,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2016\/06\/16\/baptists-call-for-an-end-to-displaying-the-confederate-flag.html","url_meta":{"origin":1612,"position":4},"title":"Baptists call for an end to displaying the Confederate flag","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 16-Jun-16 10:25am","format":false,"excerpt":"The Southern Baptist Convention has passed the following resolution:'We call our brothers and sisters in Christ to discontinue the display of the Confederate battle flag as a sign of solidarity of the whole Body of Christ, including our African-American brothers and sisters.'I applaud their action.(The full resolution is here: http:\/\/erlc.com\/resource-library\/articles\/resolution-7-on-sensitivity-and-unity-regarding-the-confederate-battle-flag)\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":51527,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/06\/20\/flags-2.html","url_meta":{"origin":1612,"position":5},"title":"Flags","author":"***Dave","date":"Sat 20-Jun-15 12:10pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Ironic that Flag Day was less than a week ago, here in the US ...In the wake of the Charleston killings, a lot of people pointed at the proud location of a Confederate battle flag on the statehouse grounds, noting it as a symbol of a civil war fought to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1612","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1612"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1612\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1612"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1612"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1612"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}