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The Forum > Article Comments > Flames of protest should be seen from more than one viewpoint > Comments

Flames of protest should be seen from more than one viewpoint : Comments

By Helen Irving, published 4/9/2006

To make flag-burning against the law would be to dilute the freedoms it represents.

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Burning national or cultural flags is a political statement, retaliation is another political statement and does have connotations of belittling those who see a flag as a symbol of something. I see flags as identifying and uniting something, nothing more.

The author, a lawyer makes the following false and misleading statement .

“Fortunately, although many Australians may not know this, our constitution protects our freedom of political communication and speech. This arises from the fact the constitution establishes a representative democracy in Australia. To use the constitution's words, our government must be "directly chosen by the people".

Our government is not “directly chosen by the people”, we don't have direct elections. We have compulsory preferential voting, which means we have no choice. Political parties (mostly lawyers) end up getting many non direct votes, from enforced preferential voting.

So her entire argument goes down the drain, along with everything else she says about our supposed freedoms. Our only freedom is a freedom to die and even then they condemn you if you make that choice. We don't have the freedom of justice, only the freedom to pay for it if you can.

If the so called legal profession was worth anything other than greedy deception, then the high court (lawyers), would uphold our constitution. Declaring invalid our non directly chosen parliaments and voting system, then jail all the perpetrators and supporters of this unconstitutional treason. But I doubt they'd jail themselves, their to corrupt for ethical practise
Posted by The alchemist, Monday, 4 September 2006 1:39:01 PM
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Hi maximus, brutus, cassius...

watch this clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8E4rMJVHyeg
Posted by Michael4Love, Monday, 4 September 2006 5:07:34 PM
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Curious, more curious and even more curiouser still...

What the ef' Michael4Love?

Nobody called maximus, brutus or cassius ever posted on this thread, until now of course, so where are you coming from?

I regret that I couldn't view your link because my computer's security blocked it, so I have no idea what the link was about. In fact I have absolutely no idea what the 'ef YOU'RE about.

I can only imagine that you're some sort of luny Marxist-greeny off his face on drugs and don't have the first idea about what the ef' you're ranting about.

But what the heck? Salute! Good luck to you mate. I hope it all works out for you in the end.

LOL mio bella.
Posted by Maximus, Monday, 4 September 2006 7:51:16 PM
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Hi Maximus,

Oops, I am sorry. That post of me is not intended for you. The link leads to a clip which shows a 'protest' of a different kind.

Check this out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8E4rMJVHyeg
Posted by Michael4Love, Monday, 4 September 2006 9:04:15 PM
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Is a blind person who has never actually SEEN the flag any less patriotic than somebody who has and would that person be equally affronted by hearing that one has been burned?

Is burning or defiling ANY symbol of what is essentially Australian equally offensive?

Is a returned serviceman who has actually risked his (or her) life on the field of battle entitled to use this form of protest?

The US has specific laws governing how and where their flag may be used, Australia does not.

A flag is not a symbol of patriotism, merely a tribal emblem or totem that may be changed by an Act of Parliament.

The response to this article demonstrates how powerful the notion of flag burning is and what an attention seeking mechanism is has become.

Affronting as it may be to some, surely one of the things the flag represents should be the right to demonstrate in that way, otherwise the flag (ie the State) raises itself above the rights of the individual.
Posted by rache, Tuesday, 5 September 2006 12:07:31 AM
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FLAG BURNING SHOULD BE A CRIME.

I would suggest life imprisonment as a minimum.

Every person so far I've spoken with views burning our flag with intense ill feeling.
We are all agreed that members of parliament are 'open season', but not the flag.

To burn the flag is to burn the nation.

"DO TO THE FLAG, THAT WHICH YOU WOULD ACCEPT BEING DONE TO YOU"

Burn it ? you burn. Spit on it.. be spat upon.... defacate on it ? be defacated on.

The flag does NOT say "Australia can do what it likes"...it just says "This is Australia" and it symbolizes some of our history.
The Union Jack incorporates the St Patricks Cross of Ireland, the Saltire of Scotland, and the St George Cross of England.

Its presense along with the Southern Cross indicates our history and geography.

It does NOT make a moral judgement on all done under it.

MAXIMUS you should view that video provided by micheal4love, its a doozy. Just tell your firewall 'allow' when it tries to access the net.
YouTube is a trustworthy site and I've seen the video.

If that does not make you feel like getting out and preparing for WAR then little short of a Nuclear attack will ever do so.

The day when some bearded freak can stand in my city and yell 'KILL KILL, you will PAYYYY' and hold my country up to total contempt in the name of a foreign sleazy religion is the day when I seriously consider my position as a Christian in terms of 'just war' to defend the nation.
Posted by BOAZ_David, Tuesday, 5 September 2006 6:28:50 AM
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