They've Burned The Constitution... Why Not The Flag ???

[jberryhill]

3. Part of communicating is knowing your audience

The problem with some types of demonstrative behavior is that while you may perfectly well understand what is your motivation and message, others who have not considered what is motivating you, or simply don't know, may take your message to be something other than what you intend or believe.

What the flag is a symbol of in the first place, is a different thing to different people.

For example, over the last few years, thousands of wives, husbands, parents and children have seen the last view of their wife, husband, brother, sister, father or mother in a metal box with a US flag on it.

For those people, the flag is something more personal to them than the logo of a government having sovereignty over a chunk of North America. So while you are expressing a view of a breach of the social contract embodied in a political document drafted by 18th Century slave owners, that is something of an academic statement which is going to be utterly misconstrued by those who would most benefit by understanding what you actually think and believe.

And that is unfortunate.