Mexican flag burned at a High School...

[Justiciar]

But this gets . If no one told you what your flag represents and you don't understand patristism; I'm sorry friend, there's no hope.

What does my flag represent? If I did know, would I like what it represents? Do I feel that my nation can be summed up by a piece of cloth? I can only answer the last one. No.

As to patriotism.. I don't get it because it's a foreign concept to me. Yeah, I understand the meaning of the word, and I understand that it afflicts other people, but I've never been a flag-waving "God bless you ma'am", type of person. Patriotism in the US gets me even more confused because of how strict it seems to be.

[Marcellus]

I can understand taking the Mexican flag down, but burning it is rather over the top, and is hardly going to calm the tensions that seem to exist in the school.

[Byzantine Prince]

Flags in general are unpatriotic in my opinion. They are just designs made by a person a long time ago, and usually randomly at that. There is nothing there to be proud of.

[Watchman]

I seem to recall seeing it mentioned somewhere national flags ultimately developed from battlefield standards and banners, a means of telling "us" from "them".

With such esteemed lineage, I don't hold them in terribly high regard.

And jingoist American nationalism, particularly when it has anti-Mexican undertones, is certainly a most unbecoming thing in grown people. Not that other national variants were particularly more palatable.

But then again, I consider all the smear-throwing and wrangling over this-and-that Congressman's or President's or P. Candidate's military awards Americans seem to delight in a symptom of unhealthy fixation with and glorification of military symbolism, and by extension a lot of things I prefer not to go into because they make me feel icky. After all, they wouldn't bother if it wasn't considered important. I'd guess the flag issue really goes under the same category.