Letter to the Editor

Reader responds to flag issue

Sunday, October 5, 2008

To the Editor:

This is a response to the response to my letter ("You have got to be kidding, right?" which appeared in the Sept. 22 edition of The Brazil Times).

Your reasoning is, in my opinion, why other countries hate us as Americans.

We say or do something without a logical reason and when confronted on the issue, people hide behind the constitution.

Sure, we do live in the "greatest country in the world," and we are afforded the rights to do just about anything we want without fear of persecution.

However, those rights should be used with some sort of common sense and good judgment.

This flag flying deal, to a lesser extent, it would be like someone flying a Nazi flag behind their BMW in Germany because they think it's cool.

I'm sure that flag brings up a lot of bad feelings of times where people were made slaves and killed just for having a certain religion. See my point?

People need to understand where the line is. It's a fine line between expressing unpopular views and offending people.

I'm not saying that people can't or shouldn't have their own opinions or views on anything.

What I am saying is that there are ways to express those views that don't leave a bad taste in people's mouths or offend them.

It sounds kind of hypocritical that I am not supposed to judge someone flying a Confederate Flag but we should all be worried if someone was flying an Iraqi flag.

Lastly, I didn't sit at the stoplight and judge that individual person for the flag and bumper sticker, which was very racist I might add.

I was judging everyone in this town that does the same thing.

After all, we live in American and it's my right to judge who I want, how I want, right? See how words can be twisted to suit your argument even though it's ridiculous?

Mike Nichols,

Brazil