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New uses for the U.S. flag
This tongue-in-cheek item from the "Peace Hallucination News Service"
appeared on the Peacenet BBS Network:
* * * * *
!! NEW USES OF THE U.S. FLAG PROLIFERATE ON THE WAKE OF FLAG PROTECTION
AMENDMENT !!
July 4, 1991 (PHNS): Only two months after the U.S. Flag protection
amendment, peasants around the world are using it to try to protect their
lives and homes against national militaries that receive U.S. assistance. One
example, confirmed by a visitor during a flight over a portion of El Salvador
today, is that villagers there have painted the flag on their roofs. They
apparently hope to prevent the Salvadoran Air Force from bombing them,
reasoning that since the military is heavily dependent on U.S. aid and
advisors, they would be subject to the prohibition despite the villagers'
being outside the technical boundaries of the USA.
The Administration reportedly is sharply divided on the issue of
whether to accept the interpretation of the amendment put forth by the
peasants, but for the time being is restraining recipients of its military
aid until public opinion polls and Congressional reaction become clear.
Some political figures have begun a campaign to amend the
amendment and #*permit*# desecration of the flag "if required by national
security". Others favor language authorizing desecration by the government or
its authorized representatives "if the flag is being used to protect human
lives". But the speeches in Congress seem to be getting too complex and
public opinion polls are not showing the clear proponderance of sentiment
they did during the enthusiasm that swept the amendment to ratification.
Many places are being literally covered with U.S. flags.
Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza are painting U.S. flags on the sides
of their houses instead of Palestinan banners. They are demanding that U.S.
Embassy representatives stand guard to prevent bulldozing by the Israeli
Army, financed largely by the U.S. government and thus subject to the ban,
according to what has become known as the "peasant interpretation." The
government of Afghanistan now flies U.S. flags from all public buildings to
"immunize" them against guerrilla attacks. So does the government of
Nicaragua.
People who some years or even weeks ago might have been desecrating
the U.S. flag are now busily painting it everywhere they can. Some painted it
on their foreheads for protection against government-sponsored
"disappearance."
Most disturbing to Administration officials was the move by some of
the dispossessed in the U.S. to paint the flag on themselves. "I can't get no
respect," said one citizen who claimed to have been slipping further below
the poverty line for two decades. "Maybe this will help." One of the homeless
stitched a flag pattern on an overcoat, saying that, since respect for the
flag directs that it be taken in for the night, perhaps this tactic might get
them the housing they'd been seeking.
People under military attack financed by foreign powers other than
the USA are calling for the passage of laws or decrees by their own
governments or by the involved powers prohibiting the desecration of the
relevant national symbols so they too will have protection. "We won't stand
for a situation in which those who happen to be victims of Yankee imperialism
have preferential treatment and protection this way, while the rest of us
have no self- defense available," said one peasant organizer from the Third
World.
Some of the original sponsors of the amendment in the U.S. are
disturbed by this misuse of their purely patriotic intent. With attempts to
amend the amendment floundering, some are talking of outright revocation.
This will be difficult, however, in view of a nearly unanimous United Nations
resolution asking the U.S. to keep the amendment. The U.S. representative to
the U.N. had said during debate that the issue is entirely an internal
affair.
* * * * *
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