and i saw it in person last night. But that's the point, isn't it? To be shocked.
Janey above said it very well, but I'd like to add one comment.

The thesis of the Declaration is pretty intense. I just went through an AFAM class dissecting the phrase through all sorts of perspectives. It has a lot of stuff going on inside of it. In the same class, my professor gave a brief lecture on the philosopher Heidegger. Heidegger, in a nutshell, wrote incredible papers on these incredible ideals... and then turned around and joined the Nazi party. A poet, I can't remember who, in talking with him later, said that he'd essentially made the English language worthless. He'd used the most poignant words to get across intensely profound points, yet so easily turned around and betrayed his principles. Therefore, no one could utter those words again and be trusted.

The Declaration did the same thing. And in many ways still does. And the revulsion that one feels when reading about Heidegger's betrayal is parallel to the revulsion one should feel when we recognize what's going in the country.

Revulsion frequently leads to shocking action, something to open up eyes. Flag burning opens eyes symbolically. Because if someone is that impassioned, to burn a flag which supposedly represents such and such an ideal, something must be up.

Dead Prez' flag burning did what it was supposed to do: it got you thinking. In retrospect, if it gets you asking these questions, what does it really mean? Is it really that bad?

-thebigfunk

"Genuine beauty is always quite alarming." - 'The Secret History'

"Sometimes TTD comes out looking like a poet laureate." - jefleejohnson