Stars and Stripes Forever:
When John Philip Sousa composed this wonderful Nacional March of the United States of America on Christmas day 1896, he didn`t know the incredible impact this hymn would create every time it would be heard not only in America, but also in the rest of the world.
The patriotic lyrics plus the wellknown music are performed in mayor sport-events like soccer, american football, baseball, icehockey, the Indianapolis 500, et al.
When John Philip Sousa composed this wonderful Nacional March of the United States of America on Christmas day 1896, he didn`t know the incredible impact this hymn would create every time it would be heard not only in America, but also in the rest of the world.
The patriotic lyrics plus the wellknown music are performed in mayor sport-events like soccer, american football, baseball, icehockey, the Indianapolis 500, et al.
The whole crowd then stands up proudly, pose their open right hand on their left chest and loudly sing in unison:
“Other nations may deem their flags the best
And cheer them with fervid elation
But the flag of the North and South and West
Is the flag of flags, the flag of Freedom's nation.”
And they`re right: America`s flag is the “flag of flags”. Not one democratic nation in the world has so much respect and love for their national symbols as the American people.
The flag and the anthem are shown and sung with glorious sentiments: it gives me a warm and shivering sensation every time I see and hear people demonstrating their proud of belonging to their country.
Sure is, that other nations like e.g. France, Holland, Germany or Italy show a full respect for their representative characters, and their demonstrations of nationalism are mostly used during sport-events or specific days when the flag is widely exposed. But the integration in daily life isnot so extreme as in the USA, where almost all individual homes have and show the “Stars and Stripes”.
Most countries have a “flag protection law”, a “Flag Desecration Amendment”, in order to maintain respect for the symbols.
In 2007, two spanish youngsters were condemned in Latvia to 6 months in jail and a fine of 3,800 Euros, for bringing down two Latvian Flags as souvenirs. Of course, the sentence seems quite exagerated: no insult or outrage was meant; the kids only wanted to take back some mementos from Latvia, but had to pay a high toll for their insolences.
That brings me to the reason of writing this post: are state symbols so important? Is the fact of burning a piece of textile or a leader`s picture enough reason for fining the accused?
My answer is YES! State symbols form part of a nation`s roots; have symbolized the struggle for freedom and represent history, liberty, democracy, tradition, respect, unity and geography.
The tolerance of intentionally destruction or damaging state symbols (like flag desecration) will lead to a disacreditation of power, a weak leadership with no fixed values to fight for: a good culture medium for anarchysm: this, combined with the famous Vincent de Gournay theory “laissez faire, laissez passer, le monde va par lui même..”, where state intervention, in order to defend Parliamentary Constitution and it´s articles, is rejected.
Such a situation is now existing in Spain. An extreme weak and tolerant leftwing political party (PSOE and Zapatero) has been ruling this country for the last 5 years, destroying any kind of established and traditionl value; introducing profound changes on social, economical and nationalistic fields.
Let`s resume it in a few words: absolutely all established, historical and traditional values have been destroyed and distorted to worse: no clean rules exist; cheating, corruption and lying are daily matters; party policy is done in a single fatal way, no dialogue or national consensus on important state matters are contemplated; Justice is politicized and absolutely no measures have been taken in order to react against the strong economical, financial and labour crisis we are suffering. “Laissez faire..”
The result is tangible: Spain is moving towards a geographically desintegrated socialistic nation, where Catalonia (Barcelona) and the Bask Country (Vitoria) will irremediably split from the mother country and force their excision in a not too far away future.
The deplorable and shameful antidemocratic, antimonarchy and antispanish attitude of both catalonian (FC Barcelona) and bask (Athletic Bilbao) footballfans, during passed wednesday`s final of His Majesty King John Charles I's Cup (Spain’s domestic cup competition), prevented and obstructed by their shoutings, the performance of the spanish national hymn, in presence of King John Charles and the Queen.
Not one national spanish flag in the crowd; boycott of the national anthem and the worse: Censorship from the part of the State owned Socialistic TV, preferring, rather then broadcasting the shameful scene of the banished hymn, emitting some local connections with Barcelona and Bilbao..”Laissez faire..”
And they`re right: America`s flag is the “flag of flags”. Not one democratic nation in the world has so much respect and love for their national symbols as the American people.
The flag and the anthem are shown and sung with glorious sentiments: it gives me a warm and shivering sensation every time I see and hear people demonstrating their proud of belonging to their country.
Sure is, that other nations like e.g. France, Holland, Germany or Italy show a full respect for their representative characters, and their demonstrations of nationalism are mostly used during sport-events or specific days when the flag is widely exposed. But the integration in daily life isnot so extreme as in the USA, where almost all individual homes have and show the “Stars and Stripes”.
Most countries have a “flag protection law”, a “Flag Desecration Amendment”, in order to maintain respect for the symbols.
In 2007, two spanish youngsters were condemned in Latvia to 6 months in jail and a fine of 3,800 Euros, for bringing down two Latvian Flags as souvenirs. Of course, the sentence seems quite exagerated: no insult or outrage was meant; the kids only wanted to take back some mementos from Latvia, but had to pay a high toll for their insolences.
That brings me to the reason of writing this post: are state symbols so important? Is the fact of burning a piece of textile or a leader`s picture enough reason for fining the accused?
My answer is YES! State symbols form part of a nation`s roots; have symbolized the struggle for freedom and represent history, liberty, democracy, tradition, respect, unity and geography.
The tolerance of intentionally destruction or damaging state symbols (like flag desecration) will lead to a disacreditation of power, a weak leadership with no fixed values to fight for: a good culture medium for anarchysm: this, combined with the famous Vincent de Gournay theory “laissez faire, laissez passer, le monde va par lui même..”, where state intervention, in order to defend Parliamentary Constitution and it´s articles, is rejected.
Such a situation is now existing in Spain. An extreme weak and tolerant leftwing political party (PSOE and Zapatero) has been ruling this country for the last 5 years, destroying any kind of established and traditionl value; introducing profound changes on social, economical and nationalistic fields.
Let`s resume it in a few words: absolutely all established, historical and traditional values have been destroyed and distorted to worse: no clean rules exist; cheating, corruption and lying are daily matters; party policy is done in a single fatal way, no dialogue or national consensus on important state matters are contemplated; Justice is politicized and absolutely no measures have been taken in order to react against the strong economical, financial and labour crisis we are suffering. “Laissez faire..”
The result is tangible: Spain is moving towards a geographically desintegrated socialistic nation, where Catalonia (Barcelona) and the Bask Country (Vitoria) will irremediably split from the mother country and force their excision in a not too far away future.
The deplorable and shameful antidemocratic, antimonarchy and antispanish attitude of both catalonian (FC Barcelona) and bask (Athletic Bilbao) footballfans, during passed wednesday`s final of His Majesty King John Charles I's Cup (Spain’s domestic cup competition), prevented and obstructed by their shoutings, the performance of the spanish national hymn, in presence of King John Charles and the Queen.
Not one national spanish flag in the crowd; boycott of the national anthem and the worse: Censorship from the part of the State owned Socialistic TV, preferring, rather then broadcasting the shameful scene of the banished hymn, emitting some local connections with Barcelona and Bilbao..”Laissez faire..”
Local Catalonia TV emits the real transmission, but without any respect and making continuous and disturbing comments(video herunder).
Can you envisage such a scene during the Super Bowl Final in the USA? Inimaginable..
Social and political alteration unilaterally imposed by the rulers, will split this nation further in two political blocks and stir up the Historical Memory. Spain has suffered a terrible Civil War between 1936-1939 and it seems the ruling party has a special interest in poking old wounds..
No traditional family values, no national symbols; imposed laicism; tendentious and low grade education; decrepit and overbooked justice; lying rulers, increasing poverty; twenty percent of jobless-rate; leftwing domination of the media (including censorship); overal nervousness; sleeping trade unions; closing factories, et al.
The quote is from Gal Fridman:
“Every Olympics we dream of hearing the anthem and seeing the flag. It's the top. I was feeling very proud and so happy to hear the people singing it. I sang as strong as I could, but nobody heard it because everybody was screaming.”
Can you envisage such a scene during the Super Bowl Final in the USA? Inimaginable..
Social and political alteration unilaterally imposed by the rulers, will split this nation further in two political blocks and stir up the Historical Memory. Spain has suffered a terrible Civil War between 1936-1939 and it seems the ruling party has a special interest in poking old wounds..
No traditional family values, no national symbols; imposed laicism; tendentious and low grade education; decrepit and overbooked justice; lying rulers, increasing poverty; twenty percent of jobless-rate; leftwing domination of the media (including censorship); overal nervousness; sleeping trade unions; closing factories, et al.
The quote is from Gal Fridman:
“Every Olympics we dream of hearing the anthem and seeing the flag. It's the top. I was feeling very proud and so happy to hear the people singing it. I sang as strong as I could, but nobody heard it because everybody was screaming.”
0 comments:
Post a Comment