It’s come to my attention that, in their zeal to celebrate International Flag-Burning Day, some folks may actually be running out and buying flags to burn.
This kind of defeats the spirit of the holiday. By purchasing new flags, you’re only supporting the flag industry. That’s not going to help “burn the scourge of nationalism away”!
Much better to simply gather up any flags you happen to have lying around the house and burn those. Of course, this means that next year you’ll have nothing to burn. But that’s OK. If you have no flags to burn, you can simply listen to this fine anthem by the Troublemakers. [Buy their CD; it’s fantastic.] Listening to this music simulates the fun of burning real flags, and it’s much safer.
If you do burn some flags, try to make sure you have more than one country represented. It’s International Flag-Burning Day after all. If people see you burning the flag of any one particular country, they might get the wrong idea — specially if that one particular country is this country.
Also, many flags these days are made of plastic and will emit toxic fumes if burned, so please exercise caution.
PS: Speaking of the Troublemakers, we just got a letter from Dr. Paul. He’s alive and living in Pasadena and seems to be doing much better. I’m going to write him a letter today.
Did Dr. Paul say how Francis Pop is doing?
Yeah, doing great. The letter included a cute picture by Poppy of a “chit chat monster.”
Have you ever burned a flag?
bob: I tried burning a Canadian flag once but it seemed to have some sort of flame retardant so it was not entirely successful.
We should make blankets for the homeless out of the flags.
And you’ll love this. From David Vitter’s e-update:
“To prevent the desecration of our flag, I have proposed an amendment to the Constitution that would enable Congress to prohibit flag desecration and establish criminal penalties for the act. A Constitutional Amendment banning flag desecration will ensure the integrity of our flag – and reverence for our American traditions and for the men and women who have fought and died to protect them. ”
I guess that rules out requesting a flag for IFBD from Vitter’s site?
http://vitter.senate.gov/?module=constituents/flagrequests
Speaking of flag burning… I was surprised to hear we’ve got a Google presidential debate coming to New Orleans! http://youtube.com/user/presidentialforum
Thank you. I have wanted a copy of thier CD for years!
If you don’t have any flags laying around, the pre-1997 flag of the Taliban was a blank white sheet – not hard to improvise from household materials.
[…] then buy. This might be a good time to review your IFBD tips. Any […]