Dear Everyone;
Recent postings called into question the use of the Mexican flag by people demonstrating against the new proposed immigration laws.
Rubin Navarrette Jr had a good riposte in today's Chronicle to the people who did use the flag and why they should not have and what they should be doing instead.
Ron Getty
SF Libertarian
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2006/03/31/EDGNSGUCVU1.DTL
I like how Ruben Navarrette contrasts the use of the Mexican flag in some recent immigration demonstrations with seeing Jewish protesters waving the Israeli flag at a U.S. capitol demonstration a few years ago:
"If you feel comfortable with one instance of flag-waving but queasy about the other, I'm afraid you have issues."
That goes for waving the American flag as well. These days it's just another statist corporate logo. If libertarians wave a flag, it ought to be the Gadsden ("Don't Tread On Me" flag), or something else pro-liberty. Using the "stars and stripes" as a pro-liberty banner at this point is just encouraging them to confuse support for the U.S. government with support for liberty -- and way too many people in this country are already confused on that score.
Perhaps there is some good achieved in using the U.S. flag in creatively culturally subversive ways, such as a drag queen wrapping herself in it at a Pride parade, or flying it from a surreal-looking art car at Burning Man. Variations such as overlaying it with an image of the Statue of Liberty may also be sending a positive message. Beyond that I don't have much use for it any more.
Yours in liberty,
<<< starchild >>>
Dear Everyone;
Recent postings called into question the use of the Mexican flag by people demonstrating against the new proposed immigration laws.
Rubin Navarrette Jr had a good riposte in today's Chronicle to the people who did use the flag and why they should not have and what they should be doing instead.
Ron Getty
SF Libertarianhttp://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2006/03/31/EDGNSGUCVU1.DTL
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Rubin makes an interesting point about how Latino students were
encouraged to walk out of schools, when this population is frequently
identified as under-served and under-achieving in the public education
system.
I came home from work on Tuesday to find a Mexican flag planted on my
front doorstep. I asked my family where it came from and my son, a
Junior at San Leandro High School, said that a group of people were on
campus that day giving them away to students to encourage them to join
the walkout.
"Did you walk out of class?" I asked.
"No," he replied. "I have way too much work to do. I just thought the
flag was cool, so I got one."
It's not a cheap dimestore flag, either. It feels quite nice and is
made from some kind of silky nylon fabric. Someone spent a lot of money
buying all these flags and giving them away to kids in exchange for
skipping out of school. Fortunately, my son said hardly anyone at his
school walked out, despite the Mexican Flag giveaway. I'm now curious as
to how many California schools were targeted by this expensive campaign.
I also heard a news story on the radio about how many buses had been
chartered by SEIU to transport protesters to Los Angeles for the largest
of the immigration demonstrations. Another ironic side to this whole
controversy is that the union that supposedly represents the lowest-paid
workers is spending vast amounts of their members' dues to support this
cause.
Personally, I'm one of those open border Libertarians who thinks
peaceful people should be permitted to travel freely and protect
themselves against violent people who may do the same. So the current
debate seems to me rather silly. Neither side has a viable solution to
the problem, and neither one will be able to solve it by these
ridiculous methods.
If the Native Americans had decided to close the borders to North
America when the first immigrants landed on these shores, our history
would no doubt have been much different.
Terry Floyd
Dear Starchild and Everyone Else;
Here's some more on flag-waving from a Lew Rockwell columnist who nails the issue on the head for USA red-blooded American flag-wavers. This also should apply to everyone else who thinks they need to wave a flag to show their patriotism.
It's in two parts. Article Number One got enough responses that he had to do Article Number Two to respond. Both make for interesting reading and thoughtful thought.
http://www.lewrockwell.com/rogers/rogers192.html
http://www.lewrockwell.com/rogers/rogers193.html
Ron Getty
SF Libertarian
Starchild <sfdreamer@...> wrote:
I like how Ruben Navarrette contrasts the use of the Mexican flag in
some recent immigration demonstrations with seeing Jewish protesters
waving the Israeli flag at a U.S. capitol demonstration a few years ago:
"If you feel comfortable with one instance of flag-waving but queasy
about the other, I'm afraid you have issues."
That goes for waving the American flag as well. These days it's just
another statist corporate logo. If libertarians wave a flag, it ought
to be the Gadsden ("Don't Tread On Me" flag), or something else
pro-liberty. Using the "stars and stripes" as a pro-liberty banner at
this point is just encouraging them to confuse support for the U.S.
government with support for liberty -- and way too many people in this
country are already confused on that score.
Perhaps there is some good achieved in using the U.S. flag in
creatively culturally subversive ways, such as a drag queen wrapping
herself in it at a Pride parade, or flying it from a surreal-looking
art car at Burning Man. Variations such as overlaying it with an image
of the Statue of Liberty may also be sending a positive message. Beyond
that I don't have much use for it any more.
Yours in liberty,
<<< starchild >>>