I’ve received a few comments and e-mails about my remarks on the flag protest in Montebello.  It’s pointed out that protest is sweet, and that it sparks debate, which is always good and important in a free society.  That this sort of protest, while ostensibly allowed here, would be met with severe reprisals in other societies.  All good points.  

Protest is sweet, often righteous.  Normally, I’m all for defiance of the Powers that Be.  I consider myself a civil libertarian, and I’ve always believed in nonviolent protest.  I’ve been in a few myself.  God bless that woman for screaming like a pitiful harpee at the president of China, right in the Rose Garden; for having the wontons to do her thing at exactly the right time and place.  Now they’re talking about charging her with a crime for exercising her freedom of speech in W’s face, which sucks but isn’t surprising.
 
Come to think of it, it doesn’t bother me when people burn the flag overseas to protest US.  I like it when they screw up and set themselves on fire.  Darwin Awards, always good for a laugh.  But see, it’s not their flag.  They don’t owe respect and gratitude to the human sacrifice it represents, like I do, and I like to think we all do.  I know people personally who served in WWII, Korea, Vietnam, having given much of themselves for US.   
 
So there was something about these soft, privileged rude suburban teenagers, in their Levi jeans and Nike shoes, safe and sound on American soil, desecrating the flag under which their own rights and safety are protected, that just got my goat.