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Walking on the American Flag is “Art”?!

April 16, 2008 by Jenn Sierra  
Filed under News/Op-Ed

We received this info from Lance Dutson, of the Main Web Report. The Maine College Republicans are reporting an incident at the University of Maine Farmington, a public liberal arts college. This was apparently a school-sponsored event. Lance relates the story this way:

These art students did a project where they laid American flags on the floor of the student center for people to walk on. They brought the cops in to protect it, when some College GOP kids and vets came to try to pick them up off the ground. In the video, the university provost actually says ‘It’s just a piece of cloth,’ to the VFW guy, and one of the faculty tells the VFW chief that they are ‘actually protecting’ his freedom of speech by doing this.

This is a disgrace. “Freedom of Speech,” does not include public universities sponsoring the desecration of the American flag and calling it “art”. We understand there may be more video and information available in the upcoming days, and if so, we’ll update this post. Meanwhile, here is some footage of the event, posted by Alex of the Maine College Republicans:

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  1. Controversy Over Flag Display at UMF says:
    April 16, 2008 at 3:03 pm

    [...] not everyone is in agreement on the issue apperantly. Jenn Sierra at forthardknox.com writes “This is a disgrace. ‘Freedom of Speech,’ does not include public universities spo… Actually, it does allow people to desecrate flags. But again, that was not the intent of the [...]

    Reply
  2. Stix Blog says:
    April 16, 2008 at 8:57 pm

    Using the US flag in a art exhibit like this is not good

    I really don”t care what your political philosophy is, using the US flag in this manner is very disrespectful to those that fought and died for our freedoms. I am not saying this is illeagl or anything, but it is

    Reply
  3. Aliza Shvarts and All that Art Stuff says:
    April 20, 2008 at 4:31 pm

    [...] Walking on the American Flag is ‘Art’?! [...]

    Reply


Comments

12 Responses to “Walking on the American Flag is “Art”?!”
  1. Roy Jones says:
    April 16, 2008 at 9:49 am

    Nothing like this would every happen at Liberty University. As a matter of fact, any soldier wounded fighting the War on Terrorism can apply for a full scholarship. We have nearly 60 wounded veterans and 2 surviving spouses of vets killed in Iraq studying at LU in Lynchburg, VA today. GOD BLESS THE SOLDIERS DEFENDING FREEDOM AND GOD BLESS THE USA!
    Roy Jones

    Reply
  2. Steve says:
    April 16, 2008 at 3:11 pm

    Remember the students at some California school that (almost) got in trouble because they walked on some Muslim flag that had Allah in Arabic on it?

    Let’s put that flag down on the floor with the American flag and see if these leftists call it art or hate speech.

    Reply
  3. TexasFred says:
    April 17, 2008 at 3:16 pm

    I have a post up on this too, the more folks that get it out there, the better!!

    TexasFred’s » Blog Archive » Walking on the American Flag is NOT Art!

    Reply
  4. forthardknox forthardknox says:
    April 17, 2008 at 7:59 pm

    Thanks, Fred…we’ve added you to the list.

    Reply
  5. Keith says:
    April 29, 2008 at 12:20 pm

    These “art” students should hold the symbol of their ability to do such stupid disrespectful acts in a higher regard. Next time there’s a war - I say send in the art students - but first wrap their asses in an arabic flag - let’s just see how they value freedom then !!!!

    Reply
  6. Mary in Florida says:
    May 1, 2008 at 5:04 pm

    This is a disgrace !!!! For a public university to sponsor this event is almost worse. What was this art (?) suppose to accomplish, what was achieved? Just some low life un-American statement that pushes our freedom to the limits. People can keep their freedom of speech, and also have respect. Their is a major difference. This isn’t freedom of speech, this is blatant disrespect. It simply serves no purpose.

    Reply
  7. booboothebear says:
    September 16, 2008 at 7:36 am

    well im a student at umf, and i totally agree with every one that it was a disgrace, calls for the resignation for our president and vice president came from alot of us, and many students were very upset, this as not the only act like this that happened, its just the one that got the most publicity, and btw, there is a youtube video that if you haven’t seen it you should, it shows and tell alot about what our president and vice president of the university is like go watch it.

    Reply
  8. David says:
    October 7, 2008 at 11:13 am

    I don’t think there’s anything wrong with this personally. Why should a sequence of colors and shapes be what a country stands behind rather than the freedoms of the people?

    I wouldn’t call it art necessarily but a statement. It tells a lot when you’d rather have the government tell us we “can’t” do something that doesn’t affect anybody in any way. Is this hurting you in some way? A flag is just a symbol just like money or any other symbol that could be used to identify a country.

    I’m not a leftist, in fact, I’m totally against the terms “right” and “left” to describe ways of thinking. Why should we be promoting the segregation of political groups? Shouldn’t we be coming together as a whole to make educated decisions rather than making biased decisions based on what party a candidate is classified under?

    Reply
  9. Jenn Sierra Jenn Sierra says:
    October 7, 2008 at 11:25 am

    David, as a wise person once said, it’s important to be open minded, but not so open minded that your brains fall out.

    We need words, terms, labels, and symbols in order to communicate effectively - otherwise, we’d all just be jabbering on endlessly about whatever pops into our heads with no real connection to reality, past, present or future.

    In this case, the symbol of the flag obviously does mean something - if it didn’t, then what would be the purpose of putting it on the floor to see if people will walk on it or not?!

    No one’s advocating here for the government to tell us we “can’t” walk on the flag - but we’d very much appreciate it if our educational institutions weren’t using our taxpayer dollars to encourage students to disrespect the freedoms so many have fought and died for.

    Reply

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