A US Flag Burns
In the United States of America, self-styled bastion of free speech and world protector of democracy, a school teacher has been suspended from his job because he burned the US flag in front of his class. Dan Holden was not protesting, or raising up anger against the government. He simply burned the flag and asked his students to go away and write an essay on what his action made them feel. It was an excellent use of teaching to make students think. Then a conglomeration of parents, perhaps who never had the benefit of creative teaching in their own cloistered past, got all patriotic, and upset, and excited, and complained to the school principle. Who took (in my view) the cowardly way out by suspending the teacher for bringing dangerous fire into the classroom.
Herald-Dispatch article
Aljazeera's take
Fox News's view
Having just spent a fortnight in the United States, and observing that 80% of houses in the areas we moved about in, displayed the stars and stripes outside their homes, and realising that most Americans do not react very positively to anything they consider un-American or anti-US sentiment, I worry that this great nation that is already largely ignorant of anything outside of the USA, will increasingly build a bubble around themselves. At least they can watch the re-runs of JAG and E-RING when they feel a little insecure and need some blunt propoganda and psychobabble to convince them they truly are the world's greatest nation.
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