Are destroying medals in protest as bad as burning the flag??

[kentuck]

Can you order new ones? Are they symbols of our nation or are they symbolic of individual valor? Obviously, they are important symbols of something. Just what, I haven't figured out yet.

However, whatever they symbolize, it must be in some way dishonorable and degrading to destroy them or to throw them away? Even if the medals symbolized My Lai massacres, innocent women and children killed, and unspeakable acts against an enemy that was no threat to America, all based on a lie. Some people argue, even if they symbolized a "lie", it was still not honorable to throw them away. Because they represent recognition by your country for your actions against a reported "enemy". Millions died.

You should wear your medals proudly upon your chest, even after you know your country lied to get you into the war. It would not be honorable to throw them away in protest. You should put on a facade and let more people die in an illegal and illegitimate war that was started on a lie. You should never protest against your government in such a way. It's almost like calling them cowards and liars to their faces....

[kimchi]

1. Um..wrong forum?????????

And I'm not touching that question with a 10 foot pole.

[PartyPooper]

2. Signing your autograph on an American flag, like Junior did, is the worst!

Sorry, I don't have a picture. But, Junior commited this travesty and desecration to the flag last year. It was well-publicised. He did it for political gain at the expense of our dead soldiers.

I only wish he could be tried for this crime against our country!

Bush = Treason

[Mz Pip]

3. Doing nothing is worse

Democracy is hard work and it is imperative for its citizens to speak out in times when leaders are taking us in the wrong direction. Like during Vietnam. Like now.

If the actions of the government are those of liars and cowards then so be it. We must speak out. To do any less would be a greater sacrilege.

MzPip
:dem:

[ugarte]

4. Protest is as American as apple pie

Destroying medals is free speech. BTW, what's wrong with calling the government cowards and liars to their faces?

[G_j]

5. the medals

belong to the person they are awarded to. IMO they can do whatever they want with them.

[Tom Kitten]

6. Burning,

tearing up, ignoring the Constitution is the worst of all...Medals are little pieces of cloth and metal, one can do with them as one pleases (what's the difference between throwing them away and donating them to a thrift store?) but there's always the record that they were bestowed...

Also makes me wonder what Bush, Cheney, and their ilk did with their ribbons and medals...

[Syrinx]

7. neither one is bad, if done in sincere protest to bad policy.

[0007]

15. that's right

[ngGale]

8. After a few more years in Iraq you...

will be able to answer your own question.

[Webster Green]

9. The medals are symbolic........tossing medals is also symbolic....

Kerry can go get some more at the Army/Navy store.

In attacking Kerry for protesting the Vietnam War, the repukes are stuck defending that war.

Idiots!

[MichaelHarris]

10. He won um

he earned um, and he can whatever he felt needed to be done with them. You wanna start bad-mouthing Ali for tossing his Olympic Gold Medal into the river because he returned to a racist America?

[MrSlayer]

11. I think personal honor in combat is to be commended.

Destroying your medals besmirches your own honor and not the honor of the country. Regardless of the morals of the engagement, as a soldier, performing heroic deeds in extreme conditions we will (hopefully) never know is commendable. They don't give you the Congressional Medal of Honor, Distinguished Service Cross or a Silver Star for no reason. Burning the flag to me is a much more direct message to the country.

[samsingh]

12. i think sending soldiers into war for personal gain is worse

[0rganism]

13. How about not showing up for National Guard service for five months?

Where does that rank in the grand scheme of wartime fubars?

[Piperay]

14. The medals belonged to Kerry

he earned them and they were his and his alone to do with as he pleased. The flag in a sense belongs to everyone because it symbolizes what our country is 'supposed' to stand for, JMO but doing something to the flag is worse than doing something with your own medals.

[Guaranteed]

16. Absolutely not.

While I don't think burning the flag should be illegal- in fact I'm viciously against making it illegal- I think it's pretty distasteful.

I don't think of the flag as representing our country, though. I think of it as representing the idea of "liberty and justice for all," which I guess is why it hurts me to see people burn it or disrespect it, because they don't look at it the same way that I do. I feel like they're burning something good in their rage at a bunch of people that are doing something bad.

Anyway, doing that is much worse, in my mind, than throwing away medals. Medals represent the actions of the individual that owns them, and if that individual regrets those actions and wants to throw them away, I don't see what makes it so horrible for the person to do that.

[yankeedem]

17. Kerry fought for the right to destroy those medals

And to have the right to burn the flag, and all the other rights that you take for granted. All * did was fight for the right to party.

[doni_georgia]

18. What about those on the Enola Gay who attached their medals to

the bomb?