Claiming that the American flag is the reason for freedom in the U.S. does not make sense; after all, it is an inanimate object.
Freedom is a vague term that is meant to refer to our civil liberties such as freedom of speech, right to privacy, right to a fair trial, etc. Humans, not a flag, created all these ideas.
But even if the flag could literally protect American freedoms, that wouldn’t justify an angry, near violent response to a group of six Associated Students of the University of California, Irvine Legislative Council members who voted on Mar. 5 to end the hanging of any flags, including the American flag, in or around their office.
It’s just a piece of cloth, yet it ignited a nationalist fervor so strong that protestors wearing shirts that read, “Our flag is the reason for your freedom,” and “God Bless America” threatened violence against the ASUCI, according to the LA Times. The ASUCI cancelled its meeting on Mar. 10 out of concern for its members’ safety.
Despite the executive faculty who quickly vetoed the decision, a large turnout of flag-bearing protestors still showed up and said they thought the move was unpatriotic and anti-American, according to KTLA.
But assuming the American flag does stand for freedom, why is taking it down inciting more anger than the anti-freedom actions of our government?
The U.S. has the highest prison population not only in sheer number but also per capita in the world, many mind altering drugs are illegal, people lose their right to due process if convicted of being a “terrorist” as a result of the PATRIOT Act and the National Security Administration has the power to collect every private electronic message anyone sends.
The list could go on, but it seems that the American flag not only fails to protect any freedoms, it is paradoxically being used as a justification to violate them by the UCI protesters.
The ever-accelerating rate of communication technology is making the world smaller. Flags and national pride will be considered rudimentary and obsolete in the centuries to come. The flag many believe to be so meaningful will be considered a mere piece of historical cloth some day.
At UCI, this soon to be obsolete nationalism served as a tool to blind protestors to the meaning of true liberty and the exchange of ideas.
Those who are threatening violence against the undergraduate representatives on the ASUCI Legislative Council are undermining the freedoms that they claim the American flag represents.
I can only hope that the people who used their energy to defend the American flag at UCI can learn to do so at more appropriate times, as the U.S. continually rescinds the civil liberties of its citizens and other humans abroad.
