How Much Attention Should Be Paid To Flag Burners And Desecrators?

Am I the only one who has noticed an influx of stories/blogs/whatevs over treatment of the American Flag lately? Have you ever noticed that this always happens right before a presidential election? First they have you believing it's the flag itself and not the ideas behind it that important, then they carry the argument to insane levels ("If you don't like our flag, then you should leave our country"). What complete and total nonsense.

Let's not forget that one of the ideals that the American flag stands for is free speech. That free speech includes desecration of the flag itself. When you say someone should leave or be thrown out of the country for desecration of the flag, you are putting limits on the free speech that we've been taught to covet so well. You are literally becoming the snake that eats itself.

It is entirely possible to love something so much that you want to tear it down, and rebuild it. It is possible to be disappointed in something you have faith in. The flag is a beautiful symbol of America, but so are veterans. You'll see many politicians wave the flag, but how many actually fund programs for veterans and help the families of those who don't come home? We're more than happy to send people to "fight for the flag", but we don't fight for them enough when they come back home. We also don't seem to be able to fight for education, for science or space travel, instead the politicians have you convinced to fight for an ideal that they have no intention of living up to or making happen at all. Love your flag, and love your country, but most importantly, love them both enough to notice when someone is trying to distract you from the real issues we have to face.

Flag burners, flag stompers and flag desecrators are immature assholes looking for attention and looking to make a statement. Ignore them and they'll go away. People who point to this behavior as "one of the problems with America today" have been successfully distracted from asking the hard questions about where our country is headed and what it's future will be.  Just saying "love it or leave it" is a way to get you to blindly accept everything without questioning or trying to fix it's flaws.  There's is practically no other thing in life where you would accept the answer "love it or leave it". You wouldn't do it in a restaurant, with your kids education or anything else, and you shouldn't be told that in regards to your country either.  It all just seems like hype to distract you  so you'll forget that you don't have a job or because you lost a brother or sister in a war.

In conclusion, fight for the flag all you want, but don't forget to fight for the ideals it stands for even harder.  We're America, we can do better than to allow this political 'smoke and mirrors' to distract us.