Philosophy
The following question was asked by a fellow Playground friend,
- Graffiti And Art
Someone spray painted an alien on a side of the overpass near our house. It's the look on the alien's face that gets me. I cannot get on route 70 without seeing it and it always makes me smile. There's just something about it. Is it art? Is...
- Passing The Plate: May Day Edition
Friends, I just finished my big gig in Lake Charles. I'll discuss it next weekend, but this weekend, yours truly needs some help. I'll be traveling tomorrow, so we'll be passing the plate. In honor of May Day, it'll be worker jokes. They...
- Hanno On Free Speech
Hanno's proposal to amend the flag burning amendment: LET US BAN the burning of the American flag. It is offensive to the majority of the citizens of this country. It is hateful. People place great importance in symbols of national unity, and the...
- I Still Don't Get The Flag Burning Thing
Since the Senate is now considering the constitutional amendment to ban flag burning thing, yet again, I figure it is time to pull out the question again. Why? I understand that the reason this continues to come up is that it is red meat for the conservative...
- 112 Mercer Street...where Einstein Lived
112 Mercer Street Princeton University Albert Einstein's house...a white frame two-story house with large front porch in Greek revival style where the physicist lived from the time he was ousted the Nazis and joined the Institute for Advanced Study...
Philosophy
Wave That Flag
The following question was asked by a fellow Playground friend,
I currently live in a theme house belonging to Gettysburg College. This house operates on a Civil War theme, and--coincidentally or not--usually houses quite a few very conservative people. I'm your basic liberal philosophy major, but I'm happy to adopt a political live-and-let-live policy most of the time. But now, somebody has decided to fly the flag co-opted by the Tea Party on the front of the house, thus seemingly indicating to passersby that the Tea Party is somehow endorsed or supported by the entire house, myself included. Of course, I am repulsed by the Tea Party.There's the active route of calling a house meeting and making it an issue. There's the passive-aggressive route and using one's own window to send a message in the other direction. There's the sneaky route in removing the flag. There's the defiant route in placing a symbol to the contrary next to the flag or on the other side of the entryway and letting everyone know you expect it not to be messed with. Others? What approach is the best idea?
So what do I do? Do I let it fly (the easiest course of action), and just stew quietly to myself, continuing to inhabit a house marked by the emblem of the Tea Party? Do I decide my moral responsibility to my own conscience and to tolerant people everywhere trumps legal concerns and take the flag down, thus potentially risking a spat over someone's property rights? Do I, on the contrary, turn this into a legal matter, and argue that the individual right of whatever student put up the flag to fly it is negated by the College's policies of non-discrimination? Do I take it down and abscond with it, avenging the theft of the Peace House rainbow flag of two years ago, which was, let's face it, probably perpetrated by this house (they also made off with one of the Peace House's rainbow-painted chairs, but luckily that was recovered in a later under-cover raid).
What do I do?
- Graffiti And Art
Someone spray painted an alien on a side of the overpass near our house. It's the look on the alien's face that gets me. I cannot get on route 70 without seeing it and it always makes me smile. There's just something about it. Is it art? Is...
- Passing The Plate: May Day Edition
Friends, I just finished my big gig in Lake Charles. I'll discuss it next weekend, but this weekend, yours truly needs some help. I'll be traveling tomorrow, so we'll be passing the plate. In honor of May Day, it'll be worker jokes. They...
- Hanno On Free Speech
Hanno's proposal to amend the flag burning amendment: LET US BAN the burning of the American flag. It is offensive to the majority of the citizens of this country. It is hateful. People place great importance in symbols of national unity, and the...
- I Still Don't Get The Flag Burning Thing
Since the Senate is now considering the constitutional amendment to ban flag burning thing, yet again, I figure it is time to pull out the question again. Why? I understand that the reason this continues to come up is that it is red meat for the conservative...
- 112 Mercer Street...where Einstein Lived
112 Mercer Street Princeton University Albert Einstein's house...a white frame two-story house with large front porch in Greek revival style where the physicist lived from the time he was ousted the Nazis and joined the Institute for Advanced Study...