A group called Disarm NYPD plans to celebrate the 4th of July with an July 1 event featuring the burning of American flags.
It started as an event to burn the Confederate Flag. But other groups around the country turned such events into burning both the Confederate and American flags, so the Disarm NYPD group changed the name of the event, as announced on a Facebook Event page:
We changed the name of this event to “Burn the American Flag.” We did this for several reasons, all of which are hopefully obvious, and should ring true to everyone with a conscious. The Confederate flag has long been a symbol of white supremacy, slavery, and Jim Crow. However, the Confederacy lost the war the American flag has unceasingly, from the first day it was ever hung, represented the exact same thing.
As the event got attention, outrage mounted:
Disarm NYPD added this statement on Facebook:
Last week, we created an event called “Burn the American Flags”, which has invoked quite a reaction from people, both positive and negative. What we had intended to be a decidedly small, unspectacular gathering of burning symbols of oppression has been shared thousands of times and has been picked up by the press. We feel that we should take this opportunity to further clarify our position on the subject.We maintain, unwaveringly, that both the Confederate flag, and the American flag are symbols of oppression….Despite this, many people are rather offended by our decision to burn the American flag. We find it a sign of the times that people can care so much about a piece of cloth, while at the same time be so quiet about black churches being burned all over the country. Perhaps this is the great difference between us and the so-called “patriots”. While they express their loyalty to symbols, we express our loyalty to the lives of the oppressed.We do not believe the ideals of America are anything to be revered…. So, we will burn the American flag, a symbol of oppression and genocide, and in the same action, dismantle our stunted, cynical expectations of what is possible in the world. The current trajectory of history is unsustainable. It is completely unrealistic to desire things stay as they are, and more unrealistic, even abominable, to desire to “go back to our roots”. We, the dreamers, are the true realists. We know things can’t continue this way, so we commit to building a better world. A world better than America.
Rush Limbaugh may have been the first person to predict this turn:
And I’ll make another prediction to you. The next flag that will come under assault, and it will not be long, is the American flag. Do not look at me that way. It makes perfect sense. If you take a look at the timeline of progressive events, their speed and rapidity with which the left is conducting this assault on all of these American traditions and institutions, if you don’t think the American flag’s in their crosshairs down the road, you had better stop and reconsider.The American flag is what? It’s the symbol of America. The left what? Doesn’t like this country very much and never has and it’s getting angrier and angrier about it seemingly every day. The American flag stands for the United States of America and, as such, everything that’s wrong with it. And you wait. It isn’t gonna be long before the American flag is gonna cause chills, fear, scary thoughts, it’s gonna make me nervous, the American flag, when I see the American flag, it’s a symbol of hate.You wait, folks. You wait.
Flag burning is constitutionally protected speech, according to the U.S. Supreme Court.
So no one can stop them. All we can do is learn about what motivates some protesters.
(Featured Image: Disarm NYPD Facebook)
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