LehighValleyHousewife is a frequent commenter here and on other local blogs. She held her own rather nicely when Boscola aide Bernie Kieklak slammed her with sexist remarks. She's easily one of the best writers in the Lehigh Valley.Thursday, I told you about charges filed against a Washington Township man who "insulted" the American flag by flying it upside down. Both The Express Times and Morning Call, which take the First Amendment seriously, jumped on this incident with front page stories. A lot of folks at The Morning Call forum, a truly scary place, are ready to lynch both the flag protestor and DA John Morganelli, who dared drop the charges in accordance with Supreme Court precedent.
These folks should take a gander at the pictures LehighValleyHousewife found. The one I feature shows the Great Decider signing flags while campaigning in 2003. Another actually features the war prez atop an American flag.
You were ahead of the curve on this one, Bernie. Kudos.
ReplyDeleteI'm just grateful the MSM chose to emphasize an important first amendment principle. When all is said and done, the press is our best friend, like it or not. I know that John Morganelii dismissed that first trespassing case at the palmer Post office after reading new articles about it.
ReplyDeleteAt least Joe Yamrus flies the U.S. flag every day. How many other people do that?
ReplyDeleteGeorge Bush defecates and urinates on what the flag stands for every moment of every day.
ReplyDeleteMaddy, That complaint can be made about the leaders of both parties.
ReplyDeleteCNN is reporting that Bush is Cancer free...
ReplyDeleteNow if only the U.S. could be free of Bush Cancer.
Some of the responses at the MC forum are pretty frightening, but at least a few of them were from military folks who agreed that however distasteful, defended Mr. Yamrus' decision to use the flag for protest
ReplyDeleteI learned an interesting bit of flag history today. I am reading a book about the Chicago World's Fair which happens to mention the The Pledge of Allegiance written by Francis J. Bellamy.
ReplyDeleteIn 1888, The premium department of The Youth's Companion magazine kicked off the School Flag Movement, which aimed to introduce U.S. flags in school classrooms in order to sell flags and promote American patriotism. Twenty-five thousand flags were sold, proving that patriotism sells quite well indeed.
Bellamy was later hired by The Youth's Companion to write the Pledge for its advertising campaign. And the rest, as they say, is history.
Amazing!
ReplyDeleteWhat's even more amazing is that Francis J. Bellamy was a socialist who was defrocked for his "Jesus the Socialist" sermons.
ReplyDeleteBellamy's first cousin was Edward Bellamy, author of the highly-successful Looking Backward (its sales during that period were second only to uncle Tom's Cabin)- a futuristic novel where the lead character awakens in the year 2000 to find a utopian world where everyone is employed by the government and retires at age 45.
The Bellamys were critics of private and parochial schools and pushed strongly for government run schools, which they recognized as a mechanism for indoctrinating children into the concept of nationalism. "The intent of the pledge was to foster allegiance to a centralized federal government."
Joe Yamrus has the right idea folks. Every stamp I buy is a flag stamp, and I affix every one upside down -- the international symbol for a ship in distress. If you don't have a flagpole or a front yard, you can still voice your concern about the ship of state every time you put an envelope in the mail.
ReplyDeleteBethlehem Bulldog,
ReplyDeleteGreaty suggestion. I've been doing that for years, but I'm dyslexic.
I have the flag on my return address labels. I'd put those upside down, but then if a letter needed to be returned I might not get it back...
ReplyDeleteI think the Post Office is dyslexic at times, too.