I need a reality check: When's the last time anyone saw a burning flag?

[Ian_rd]

I have never seen a flag burned first-hand, and I've been to plenty of anti-establishment gatherings and marches. Nor have I seen one burned on television that occurred in the United States. The only ones I've seen were from decades ago in documentaries about the Vietnam War and 70s counter-culture.

How about you all? When is the last time you saw a burning flag?

[Hugin]

1. Well, we burnt one when I was in the Boy Scouts... 20 years ago.

Big ceremony... It had 48 stars and had to be retired.

It flew over the Capital building once.

[Ian_rd]

4. I'm quite sure the GOP isn't out to ban the respectful retiring of a flag

They are out to ban it as an act of protest. When's the last time anyone saw that?

[Hugin]

6. My answer to "Protest Burns"...

Has always been, "Burn all you want, we'll make more."

It's a very progressive and optimistic sentiment.

[ktlyon]

23. maybe we should burn some republican flags

that would make a statement

You know the one with the satanic stars we could burn it for God!

[Hugin]

24. Beautiful thought!

Do they have an official flag?

[ktlyon]

43. not sure, but they have a logo thingy

could print it in flag form and...

[notadmblnd]

2. I never saw one being burnt

I'm 47

[NMDemDist2]

3. last time I saw one? in 1971 in Berkley CA n/t

[wakeme2008]

5. 70s in THIS country

now in other countries that Bush has pissed off all the time :shrug:

[Lowell]

7. We burned about 20 of them on Flag Day

We do it every year at the VFW.

[Philosoraptor]

8. Let's see, last week I saw 7, 2 on Sunday, 6 today, uh..carry the 4....

I'm not too good at math, but hippys are always burnin' em' all the damned time I do know that.

[Lerkfish]

9. I'm 47, and I've never seen it.

And I've lived in more than 12 states in my life.

[sinkingfeeling]

10. I think it might have been in 1968!

[izzie]

11. Never in real life but years and years ago on TV

Maybe the 60's

[theoldman]

12. I have a great idea.

Lets make our flags out of a fire-retardant material. That would give the flag burners a fit. BTW, just where do the people in all of the Muslim countries buy their American flags.

[doc mercer]

13. Flag

I saw Cheney burn one last time he was hunting .. he was liquored up and thought the flag was a quail

[BOSSHOG]

14. I strip naked every morning and burn 200 flags

in front of the post office. Will someone please pass a law and stop me.

[Hugin]

16. That's just wrong...

Why don't you just buy a sweater?

[Philosoraptor]

28. What a wuss, I always torture my flags first.

Then I remove the stars, one at a time, and then slowly strip away the stripes, the white ones first. Oh the wonderful tearing sound...

[July]

45. BOSSHOG, your posts never fail to delight. nt

[Pastiche423]

47. I want a picture!

Please?

[High Plains]

15. I watched a flag burned at the state capitol in Austin ,Texas

...sometime in the 1980s, I suppose. It was in celebration of the Supreme Court ruling saying flag burning bans were unconstitutional. A small group of alienated people (my friends).

The kid who took that case to the Supreme Court was a Revolutionary Communist Party kid named Joey something. He got arrested in 1984 in Dallas at the GOP convention for burning one. We let him sleep on the floor of our student housing co-op once.

[liberal N proud]

17. This month!

The local news reported several flag burnings on Flag Day!

Several local Boy Scout groups and VFW and Legion groups were burning flags, it was a flag disposal ceremony.


I wonder how we will dispose of old flags because burning "was" considered the method of choice.

[allalone]

18. saw it on tv during vietnam war

never in real life. But I'll tell you. I'm getting to the end of my rope here.
With all the s*** going on, it's flag burning Monday in DC. I know the first thing in the morning the most pressing thing on my mind is, OH, I hope none of them damn hippies burn our cloth symbol of the nation. No, first thing I think is, Jeez I wonder what they did now. I'm sick of being anxious. Oh, not about terra-ists, about what our gummint is up to. I'm sick of being cheated and lied to. I'm sick of looking at rich old white men telling us what to do. Kick their asses out of there. Or as we used to say in Chicago, throw the bums out. They spend all their time lining their pockets and screwing us. WE are America. THEY work for us!

[porphyrian]

19. I only see it when someone's showing a clip of it while talking...

...about how it should be illegal. I've never seen it in person.

[itcfish]

20. I have Not Seen a Flag

Burning in this country since 1973. You do see the US flag being burnt everyday in the rest of the world. But all the amendments in the world will not stop the flag burning in the rest of the world.

[The Backlash Cometh]

21. Never in real life. Just on t.v.

And on t.v., I think I've seen maybe one.

[Semi_subversive]

22. None in my 50+ years, but

I see on a daily basis those tattered flags flying from some yahoo's car or motorcycle. Isn't that the same as burning it? You are intentionally doing so. Destroying is destroying as well as being against the US Flag Code. Will they address this and get all their flag waving supporters pissed off?

[Hugin]

26. AMEN to you!

That drives me nuts!

[Burried News]

29. Good point.

I've never seen a flag misused by a protestor.
I saw a construction worker in GA use an American Flag hankerchief to blow his nose in.

[JuniperLea]

31. I agree!

Now THAT should be outlawed! And the paper plates, napkins, cups... all that disposable stuff should be outlawed. It's not proper!

http://www.senate.gov/reference/resources/pdf/RL30243.pdf

The original page I'd bookmarked is now gone... it talked about ceremonial burning of old, tattered or dirty flags... interesting.

[OneBlueSky]

25. the American Legion and the VFW (I think) periodically burn . . .

old worn flags . . . it's actually the preferred way to dispose of them . . .

which makes flag burning essentially a thought crime, i.e. whether or not you're guilty depends on what you were thinking when you burned it . . .

think you're performing a respectful service by burning the flag? . . . no crime . . .

think you're protesting the government by burning the flag? . . . CRIME! . . .

it's ridiculous . . .

[Hubert Flottz]

27. On TV when Bush was in Europe, selling his bullshit to people...

who weren't buying it!

[JuniperLea]

30. VFW Hall

When I was a kid, the VFW guys would put an ad in the local paper when they planned on conducting a flag burning... which is the proper way to dispose of a tattered or soiled flag. All the Boy and Girl Scout Troops would attend and assist in giving lectures and presentations on the proper handling, hanging, folding and storage of a flag... and the proper disposal when that flag had done its duty.

If it becomes illegal to burn a flag, how would we properly dispose of a flag that had fulfilled its service?

:shrug:

[stanwyck]

32. This proposed amendment is the official surrender flag

face it. If you have to bring up the flag burning amendment, it means you've failed at everything else: healthcare, the environment, education, the war...you name it. All else has failed. Raise the white flag of surrender: the flag burning amendment.

[slybacon9]

33. Actually, I've already burned three today.

Yeah, between having steamy anal sex with my mexican gardener/fiance and the hours i spend hating the troops, i like to burn a flag or two... it helps cover the smell of my joints too.

[Ian_rd]

35. We have a winnah! Haha! (nt)

[partylessinOhio]

34. I have never seen a flag burning in person and I am old.

I have seen very few flag burnings on TV or in the print media.

I don't see this as a "real" problem and the Senate needs to get back to "real" problems like the fake war, the high cost of fuels and the lack of health care in this country even for those who have insurance. It certainly is a worse problem for those who don't have insurance.

[Raydawg1234]

36. Never.

It's all part of Bush/Cheny's plan to make Congress irrelevant. Bush is King while Congress wastes it's time on pointless wedge issues.

[ksilvas]

37. Never seen one burnt in public in the US, except,

I burnt one at the beginning of Gulf War I,
but it was a private ceremony, between me
and some friends. I felt it was my duty to
protest blatent war profiteering.

[Raine]

38. Once 20+ years ago

it was during the Raygun years during a protest at UCLA and more protesters tried to stop it than the few that did it.

[uppityperson]

39. Never.Seen lots of bad flag clothing, bikinis, shirts, jockstraps, etc. nt

[otherlander]

40. I saw a burning flag on television a few months ago...

during the cartoon riots. And that's it. Ever.

[ribrepin]

41. 1970--protests against Kent State in Seattle

[TheFarseer]

42. I've seen a boatload of Arabs burning it

in their country. Never seen one burn in the USA.

[RagingInMiami]

44. The Cuban right-wingers were burning them in Miami

After the Feds seized Elian Gonzalez on that early morning.

[Mutley]

46. Except on the teevee, never.