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Flags from controversial Northeastern exhibit stolen
By adamg on Fri, 10/07/2011 - 12:06pm
UPDATE: Somebody turned the flags into campus police.
The Huntington News reports two American flags with certain colors missing that were hanging in an International Village lobby have gone missing.
The flags, one missing the blue and stars, the other missing the red stripes, were intended to represent the lack of cooperation in Washington between the "red" and the "blue," according to their designer, Thomas Starr, a professor in Northeastern's Department of Art and Design. But the Northeastern College Republicans called them an un-American "atrocity" and demanded they be removed.
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Comments
Atrocity? Really?
In point of fact, neither one of them is actually an American flag. This whole "controversy" is rather like putting dough and tomato sauce in one container, while cheese and pepperoni are in another container, and somebody coming along and saying it's an insult to pizza.
Suldog
http://jimsuldog.blogspot.com
A bit OT...
.. but put that on the menu of some trendy restaurant, call it "Deconstructed Pizza" & you could charge 27 bucks for it ;-)
If someone stole their Stars-n-Bars ...
Otherwise known as the flag of Southern Treason, they would be screaming about epic anti-white racism on campus in a Faux News interview.
This is what the Party of Lincoln has reduced itself to.
Political speech
Could there be anything more clearly covered under the First Amendment than using the flag to make a political point?
And what is it about young Republicans that causes them to be so stereotypically right-wing nut jobish that they completely miss, or simply dismiss, that fact?
I find that the more people
I find that the more people harp on about the Constitution, the less they know about it.
I mean, had they REALLY been up on their Constitutional law, they would've known that even if they WERE actual flags, it was protected speech thanks to Texas v. Johnson. (Granted, Northeastern is a private institution, so technically they could have taken the flags down - but it would've been in poor taste for that to be done.)
Constitution
First Amendment only prohibits state actors (government) from infringing on free speech. (I assume it wasn't the staties who tore down this installation.) Professor here would have to rely on trespass, larceny, etc.
(I did note that.) Luckily,
(I did note that.)
Luckily, it seems the flags have been found. Hope whatever brats did that are expelled.
Well, they would know.
"But the Northeastern College Republicans called them an un-American 'atrocity' and demanded they be removed."
I'd say the same about College Republicans.
In my day . . .
. . . of being a college republican/conservative alternative newspaper dude- we at least thought we had far bigger fish to fry than something as preposterous as this. We fancied ourselves Edmund Burke type conservatives though and not nationalists and militarists as I suspect the vast majority of young Republicans are today.
Well, see in MY day
This would have been par for the course. Then again, I went to school with Jack Abramoff ...
There were certainly . . .
. . . other young Republican groups for whom anything short of walking around with the federal flag on a silk pillow would have outraged them. At BC in my day conservatism had more of a Celtic/Catholic flavor about it - heavy on the Burke- with some Thoreau thrown in for good measure. The flag was never our thing.
Are you rich, Chris Dowd?
Are you rich, Chris Dowd?
You went to Brandeis?
You went to Brandeis?
Yep
I was not, however, a member of the College Republicans.
Ironic
Isn't it? The "young republicans" probably stand up and cheer every time our government grinds to a halt. They undoubtedly don't care if their fellow countrymen can't find jobs, ran out of unemployment, or have had a property foreclosed upon. Was it ever the case that Americans cared about all other Americans? Probably not, but the "young republicans" have grafted themselves to a symbol, and nothing more. They get upset when somebody makes a statement using the design of our flag as a graphic example of where we stand as a nation, but couldn't care less about the reasons the statement is true.
At least they are consistent
Yes, I remember when these same Young Republicans were outraged by all the Tea Party members wearing flag-themed clothes in violation of United States Code. Title 4, Chapter 1.
My bounty
I'll buy a beer for the first person who posts a picture of a current Northeastern University College Republican wearing clothing depicting the flag or 2 beers if it's an actual flag being draped or carried on their person (which directly violates US Code...unlike this artwork which is not the actual flag).
Great job by College Republicans!
Good for the College Republicans! Desecration of Old Glory should always be vehemently opposed whenever and wherever it happens. Promoting desecration of the U.S. flag, is it any wonder that Northeastern now seems to be the choice of the homegrown terrorist crowd? As for the theft of the "artwork", the College Republicans have condemned the crime and there appears to be no evidence they were involved. Remarkable to see the "progressives" once again rush to judge the conservatives, a la Jared Lee Loughner.
Question
What about this atrocity too, O-FISH-L? The artist had the audacity to replace the stars with an Islamic star and moon symbol!
soldiers
I have friends who fought and dies for that flag. When a girl from my school was killed in the twin towers in 9/11 the only thing that gave us hope that it would be ok were the firefighters raising the flag in the rubble. All you folks that support this statement simply would never care to fight for this country and many of you just want to be quite open minded to the things that insult the very being of what our Nation Stands For. Have some Pride and stand up for those who fight and lay their lives down for you and stop this un-patriotic dogma.
Simpleton
Clearly, you cannot separate the symbol from the meaning. A flag is just a piece of cloth. It symbolizes a set of values and shared goals. Holding a piece of cloth to be sacred, divorced of the meaning implied in the symbolism of that flag, and ignorant of the history there of, is simple idolatry of the worst kind.
I Am An American.
I could not even start to
I could not even start to wonder about the complexity and depth of motivations of people who have died in war. But I am sure that it was not for only a flag. Our nation is built of so many things that are beyond a single image or object. We have our society and communities, our history, our ideas and ideals. A flag can represent any and all of these - but a flag by itself is still only a flag.
This is why I refuse to say the Pledge of Allegiance to the flag. The flag is not my nation. In fact I believe that treating the flag as though it is politically sacred is no less than political idolatry. It is confusing the symbol for the idea. I would proudly pledge my allegiance to the Constitution. In fact I pledge my allegiance every time I vote.
There was a day when I actually experienced the joy – and pride – of declaring an oath to uphold and defend the Constitution of the United States. A pledge to a flag is political idolatry. But a pledge to upholding the ideas and ideals of our nation is a pledge to support and defend the very best of us.
Brilliant
I'm glad this actually made the news. The idea of separating the two components of the US flag to represent the political divisions in this nation is brilliant. This is American wit at its best. To realize that by taking a symbol as potent as the US flag and "separating" it is pure genius.
The College Republicans however sound melodramatic. Calling this un-American, saying the flag was dismembered, describing this as an atrocity is absurb. I would be glad to give the group's pres a lesson in atrocity. Hanging innocent men because they're Jewish or Black, genocide of people are of a religion or who are mentally challenged, two unwinnable wars, including one that was fundamentally immoral or tens of thousands of foreclosed and lost homes and destroyed life's saving qualify as atrocities. Using the elements of a flag for political speech is not an atrocity; in fact it is a noble form of expression and communication.
Hopefully the young adults in this group of college republicans will get enough life experience to realize sooner than later that symbols do not matter more than people's lives.
Problem is...
The flag is meaningless if you are fighting free speech and expression. How people can be more upset by what is nothing more than a means to discuss the actual (that's actual, not symbolic) divisions in our country than they are upset by the actual state of the union, is just amazing. The flag? It's nothing but a piece of cloth, if it is to be considered more important than the ideas that make this country great.
Poor College Republicans!
Their heads would explode if they ever saw this:
Penn & Teller "Flag Burning"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jF2iX2VG6e4