Flag Day: Burn Your Flag

Yesterday was Flag Day, one of my favorite holidays. Come on, it's the FLAG!

I have a couple of pet peeves, though, about idjits who think they're patriotic and then totally disrespect the flag.

First, thank heaven our post-9/11 patriotism is starting to wane. After 9/11, it was like how the whole country became Red Sox fans when the Sox won the World Series. People who had never displayed a flag in their lives suddenly started hooking them to their car windows (which is not how you display a flag on a car, by the way), and then they'd drive down the freeway at 70 miles an hour submitting Old Glory to gale force winds. After a week of that kind of beating, the flags were thrashed, shredded and tattered. I want to know what happened to these flags? Were they disposed of properly? Not likely. I suspect millions of flags ended up in the garbage. How patriotic.

Which leads to my second pet peeve:
Who are these yahoos who think a Constitutional Amendment preventing the burning of flags is a good idea? First, it violates our already established rights of free expression. Second, any Boy Scout can tell you that the proper way to dispose of the flag (that you just beat the crud out of on your car) is to burn it. That's right, BURN IT.

Have a flag that needs to be retired? You might try contacting your local Boy Scout council. Many councils have a Scout troop specially designated to dispose of flags properly. If your local Council doesn't have such a troop, then visit Flagkeepers.org and they can give you more options. In fact, you can even send your flag to them, and they'll take care of it for you.