More D&C editorial blog silliness
James Lawrence takes a break from his anti-rap jihad to weigh in with some idiocy about Flag Day:
I believe most Americans have a healthy respect for the flag, as they should. I remember my junior high school years in Florida when there was a daily ceremony after school at the flag pole where the flag was taken down by a chosen-student as the drum section of our high school band played patriotic songs. There was nothing xenophobic about that. In fact, more schools should bring back the practice. We certainly could use more lessons in respect!
James, if you want teen-agers to respect their elders, you could start by doing a half decent job in your “blogatorials.” I question, frankly, whether you even understand what the flag stands for. It doesn’t stand for mindless repsect for our leaders (or whoever you think kids should respect more, it isn’t clear from your piece) but for freedom of speech, freedom of the press, and freedom of thought.
Tom Tobin has a much more thoughtful piece on Flag Day here.
Update: Sorry if this sounds like typical blogger angriness, but I find it upsetting when someone like Lawrence confuses “respect” for a piece of cloth with respect for the principles that make our nation what it is. It’s completely irresponsible for the head of the editorial page of a fairly major paper to be this thoughtless in his editorializing. The values this country was founded on have been completely betrayed by a president who wraps himself in the flag at every opportunity. That tells you everything you need to know about the “benefit” of having children stand and mindlessly salute a flag.
Related posts:
[...] Wanted for RochesterTurning * Flash Animator (at least give us some pointers) * Internet movie making skills * Someone who can answer a friggin Drupal question for me Progressive Infrastructure Heroes of RT ncroc ______ ______ ______ ______ « More D&C editorial blog silliness [...]
[...] asinine “Speaking Out” essays about internet filters in libraries, encouraging absurd debates about the Pledge of Allegiance, and by continuing its ridiculous and pointless anti-gangster rap [...]