AP Wire | 04/22/2006 | Rick Monday saved the flag 30 years ago: "Rick Monday never tires of answering questions about that memorable day 30 years ago, when he performed his own Patriot Act and unwittingly became an icon to millions of American war heroes and their loved ones.
Monday was playing center field for the Chicago Cubs on April 25, 1976, at Dodger Stadium when he noticed two protesters kneeling on the grass in left-center, intending to burn the American flag. He immediately bolted toward them and snatched it away.
'I was angry when I saw them start to do something to the flag, and I'm glad that I happened to be geographically close enough to do something about it,' said Monday, now in his 13th season as a Dodgers broadcaster.
'What those people were doing, and their concept of what they were trying to do was wrong. That feeling was very strongly reinforced by six years in the United States Marine Corps Reserves. I still think it's wrong to do that.'" more
Personally I don't believe that flags are sacrosanct/sacred or any other holy descriptor. It is an insult to burn a flag, but that is as much damage as it causes. Burning a flag is an imsult in the same way that some political satire can be insulting. Political satire against islamic beliefs for example, doesn't require the lopping off of heads as retribution and neither should the burning of a flag result in a retributive act of violence. It is only a flag and it is only a cartoon.
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