1st Amendment
too incendiary?
I don't celebrate the 4th of July as a general rule. Fireworks are pretty, a big spectacle, sparkles in the sky. But the sounds of fireworks can be harmful to our animal cousins, our domestic and beloved pets, cause abreactions in those suffering with PTSD. The sounds glorify war. I'm no patriot but I do love the idea of freedom of speech that this country currently upholds. Complicated as it is.
For instance, we are allowed to burn the American flag....as long as it's burnt asunder. No remnants anywhere. Don't ask...don't tell. Just have your freedom of speech and make sure there's no evidence of it later. But actually even that's not entirely true. Burning the US flag, as long as it's not harming anyone or threatening or causing a disruption in the general order of things, is in fact within our constitutional rights. Now that the supreme court has made the decision to grant presidential immunity, we can rest assured that the president (pick your preferred old white man) can also freely burn the flag at will even if it DOES cause harm, destruction, chaos, etc., because he is immune from prosecution.
Why are flag burning and flag desecration protected as free speech?
On June 21, 1989, in a landmark 1st Amendment decision, constitutioncenter.org/blog/when-the-su…
SCOTUS upheld the rights of protesters to burn the American flag. Ironically, it was conservatives on the court that voted this way. They upheld that in spite of their distaste for the act of flag burning, it was justified as an act of freedom of speech in the 1st amendment of the constitution. A lot of deliberating was done. But this, in the end, was the result, that it is our patriotic right to express our dissent when we do not agree with the government's policies and it is in some ways our responsibility to do so if we feel compelled. We can assemble. We can dissent. We can speak out against authoritarianism and all the isms in fact and we can burn the American Flag with our hands on our hearts singing the national anthem.
A really fascinating rendition (one of my personal faves) is from the shouting men's choir in Finland Mieskuoro Huutajat - youtube.com/watch?v=Zqz9EJ3Yb_o) and of course,Jimi Hendrix's interpretation of it at Woodstock in 1969 - youtube.com/watch?v=sjzZh6-h9fM) which really says it all.
But despite what our feelings are about the US governmental policies and those in power, “WE THE PEOPLE (not just the white men for instance) of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”
Now, let's get that ol' ERA passed once and for all, stop shaking our heads in disbelief and make some headway towards equity. Let's give Beyoncé - youtube.com/watch?v=VBmMU_iwe6U a chance to write another song celebrating a new world order that might actually give peace a chance.