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Message: [QUOTE="UcMiami, post: 1795777, member: 199"] Bigpetunia - nicely stated. Obviously everyone has a right to come down on any side of this issue. I just find the inconsistencies of responses to this and other controversies troubling. For those who served, and I did not, I appreciate the responses here and in other places on this subject. Like other diversities in our society, service in the military (and more specifically in combat) is a distinction that is becoming a smaller and smaller percentage of our population as the WW veterans, Korean veterans, and even the Viet Nam veterans (all wars fought with a draft) age and pass away. I do not presume to know how each of you feel about the various symbols and trappings that are representative of our country. For me personally, I find the worship of symbols to be problematic - whether that be a flag, a cross, a star, a book, a 'prophet', or a 'god'. Those symbols are too often held up as a way to silence both criticism and discussion and are used to preclude deep introspection. It seems to me that all the advantages of our interconnected world have a way of creating greater noise and more polarization as various symbols become cudgels to bash down dissenting views. By the way, I prefer Johnson to Russell: Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel. It speaks to what I was trying to express in the previous paragraph. [/QUOTE]