THE LAND OF THE FREE AND THE HOME OF THE BRAVE

With Independence Day on the horizon, a curious crop of new stories is arising. Or maybe they've always been around but I am just now noticing.

There's a guy named Mike Norton in Utah who's built a war memorial on his front lawn. It says, "KILLED IN IRAQ" and shows the faces of every American who has died in the war. The memorial is updated almost daily as new soldiers are killed. The memorial also sports some yellow "Support our troops" ribbons. There is nothing on the memorial that says, "Stop the war," or "These people died to protect us!" There is no clear opinion expressed, except the simple fact that these are the faces of now-dead Americans. This is a memorial for the dead, not a protest against the war or a call to arms.

As you may expect, Norton is getting a small number of thanks from veterans, but mostly, he's getting his car vandalized and he's being harassed by neighbors. It's gotten to the point that the town is telling him to take down the memorial, even though they told him it violates no codes. Nobody wants to know the truth. Or if they do, they don't want to see it. It's OK to say, "Support our troops and fight the war," as long as you don't show the reality of the situation. Soldiers die. That's what they do. Oh yeah. They kill, too. That's not me being a crazy Liberal. That's the truth and any conservative Republican will agree. So if you want to honor and support the soldiers, the least you can do is to acknowledge their deaths and look at their faces.

In a somewhat related story, The House votes today (June 22) on a proposed constitutional amendment that would ban desecration of the flag. This is plain crazy. The foundation of this amazing country is freedom. All we've been hearing for the last 4 years is how we have freedom and terrorists hate it and our freedom is so amazing. "Freedom isn't Free!" I hear. Well, Bush and Cheney keep saying how well the war is going. That must mean we have our freedom and it's nice and safe. Well then, please explain to me how the government can just decide to take our freedoms away? Or if not how, why? Why would they try to silence the public from dissent? What makes America so special is the respect the government supposedly has for the people. Can you imagine going to prison for desecration a flag? In the strictest sense, people would be eligible for orange jumpsuits left and right. You are not supposed to fly a flag at night, in the dark. You shouldn't put any marks on it. If it's damaged, you are supposed to remove it from sight. How many torn flags have you seen on cars? How many were flying at night? Congressman Phil Gingrey said that "to burn a flag is to disrespect America." Well, yeah...so? That's still legal. Disrespect, while offensive, is legal. The price of freedom is that you're gonna get offended sometimes. Congressman Gary Ackerman said that the American flag symbolizes the right to burn the American flag. I'm paraphrasing, but he's right....I mean Left. He's correct, is what I'm trying to say.

On Independence Day (also known as 4th of July, dummy), try to keep in mind the countries around the world that are NOT free. Think of the countries where the media is told not to print certain stories, or the news stories are produced by the government itself. Imagine a country where the average person cannot criticize the government without risking prison. Imagine a world in which the government sorts through library records to see if there are any suspicious patterns. Better yet, imagine a country in which the government has the right to grab any "suspected" individual without a court order and hold them indefinitely without legal council.

Then wonder who is going to liberate those people.