“Freedom’s just another word for nothing left to lose …”
We hear a lot these days about slippery slopes.
If we allow this, then this and this and this will follow.
Well, same-sex marriage didn’t lead to marrying children or farm animals, things those opposed told us were certain to happen. Not yet, anyway. And allowing hardcore pornography didn’t lead to the legalization of child pornography. If anything, we’ve gotten even tougher about that.
A lot of very popular movies from the ’70s and ’80s would be heavily bowdlerized now. Pinto couldn’t have sex with Chlorette in “Animal House,” especially since she informs him at the last minute that she’s 13 years old. And Stacy in “Fast Times at Ridgemont High” is shown several times having sex as a ninth grader.
Well, I think maybe there’s something else we need to do.
Ban public display of the Confederate flag.
It wouldn’t even require a constitutional amendment, maybe just a different look at what the Founders may have intended.
Certainly there are those who believe it would be a restriction on free speech to ban it. Correct me if I’m wrong, but I don’t think flags have gained the power of speech.
Part of the problem is that we have broadened freedom of speech to include freedom of expression, even when that expression doesn’t include verbalizing. Especially when it has been proven that there are legitimate restrictions on speech itself. There’s the obvious one — not shouting “fire” in a crowded theater — as well as not being allowed to incite a riot.
Germany banned display of swastikas after World War II, although ironically, you’ll probably see more swastikas in our country than anywhere else in the world. Along with the rebel flag, they are a symbol of white supremacists.
Let’s be honest here. Display of the Confederate flag is mostly about white supremacy anyway. The “Lost Cause” isn’t about the loss of cavaliers and chivalry nearly as much as it’s about white people being on top and black people being their slaves.
And of course swastikas are about white supremacy too. When Nazis or neo-Nazis refer to so-called “mud people,” it’s more than just non-whites. They don’t consider Jews as white people, which is why these folks must have been doubly annoyed by our Senate runoffs here in Georgia. We not only took the Senate away from them, we did it by electing a black man and a Jew.
I’m not Jewish, although my dad’s side of the family is, and I don’t think the swastika is as much of a problem as the rebel flag.
`Maybe I’m giving people too much credit, but there are a lot of people who love the Confederate flag but would be extremely offended by the Third Reich’s insignia.
I wouldn’t ban it completely. If someone needs to put one on the wall in their rec room … or their garage … or anywhere it wouldn’t be seen by the public, that’s fine with me. But no more waving it at demonstrations or flying it from their car or truck. That’s too offensive now that it has basically before the symbol of white supremacy.
And one final point.
Hey, they lost.