There’s a scene in the movie “A Christmas Story” where little Ralphie is helping his dad change a flat tire and accidentally causes the lug nuts to go flying in all directions. We hear him say “fu-u-udge” in slow motion.
Ralphie as an adult, narrating the story, tells what really happened. “Only I didn’t say ‘Fudge.’ I said THE word, the big one, the queen-mother of dirty words, the ‘F-dash-dash-dash’ word!”
That’s not a word we use in our family-friendly Great Bend Tribune. So we can’t show you images of the flags flying in town that say “‘F-dash-dash-dash’ Biden!” One of these flags flies on 24th Street, just a few blocks from Jefferson Elementary School.
These offensive flags are protected as free speech under the First Amendment. The homeowners have every right to fly them. They also have the right to fly a Confederate battle flag or to stand in their front yards and burn an American flag.
Not too far from here, Sen. Mark Steffen (R-Hutchinson) notes, “I’ve got areas that are full of Confederate flags. Why? That has nothing to do with race. It has everything to do with distrust in the government.”
That’s also free speech, although one could question if he’s interpreted the meaning of the flag correctly.
Flying these symbols may cause others to question your values. If you own a business, or people know who you work for, they are free to take their business elsewhere if your speech offends them. Most of us won’t bother to go that far. It is probably best to ignore it, the way we would ignore a bratty child who continues to have a “potty mouth.”
We could try reasoning with the flag fliers. “Use your good words, OK? That’s not a word (or symbol) that we use here. Please try to communicate in a civil manner.”
Research and common sense tell us that obscenity can be used to create attention, provoke, discredit, and for identification. These anti-Biden flags appear to attempt to do all of these, adding the message “Trump is my president.”
The flags are protected free speech. If they were in a movie, it would get an “R” rating and no one under the age of 17 could see or hear them without an accompanying parent or adult guardian.
These flags are specifically about one man, the President of the United States. There’s a good chance that in either 2016 or in 2020, your fellow Americans elected a president that you personally did not like. One that, in your opinion, was a bad choice for our nation. A president who should not have been elected to the highest office in our land.
For those who were disappointed in 2020, there are options that are better than wearing your bitter F-bombs on your sleeve next to your heart. But feel free to be offensive. Whether you trust our government or not, its Constitution gives you that right.
