Another reason to hate BofA (A=Assholes)

[Po_d Mainiac]

BRANCH MANAGER REPORTEDLY ORDERS REMOVAL OF FLAGS PLACED TO HONOR FALLEN MARINE

A South Carolina Bank of America branch is drawing criticism Thursday after an employee reportedly ordered the removal of American flags placed to honor a fallen Marine over fears that people would be offended. :grr:

http://www.palmettoscoop.com/2009/09/17/bank-of-america-in-hot-water-over-sc-flag-flap/

if you haven't done so already...move your business to a local bank or credit union

[chalky]

1. Exactly WHO did this twit think would be offended?

n/t

[gateley]

5. All their customers with Confederate flag bumper stickers on their cars? nt

[polichick]

2. South Carolina huh? There must be something in the water. nt

[Sarah Ibarruri]

3. An employee friend of mine who was born in Germany and I were having a discussion the other day

It had nothing to do with this incident, but it is VERY related.

We were having lunch, discussing how untraveled Americans are and how much Americans love to wear blinders, and we got onto the topic that both of us (super-well travelled ladies) noticed: that Americans have some sort of obsessive-compulsive problem about their flag.

You can travel anywhere, but unless it's the Olympics, the military, an embassy, the house of the president, or the Parliament, you'd be hard pressed to find people buying flags, slapping them onto their car bumpers, putting them out to fly them, wearing hats with them, t-shirts with them, showing them everywhere, in sports events, in meetings, saluting it, etc.

WHY OH WHY do Americans have such an obsession with the frikkin' flag? Excuse me but it is honestly WEIRD.

People love their country, but they don't go around wearing little flags, having rules about how to fold the flag, dispose of a flag, how to fly the flag. WTF??????

My German friend said that the only other country she knows was obsessed with the flag once, was her own country during Naziism.

My GOD, this is a CIVILIAN country, not a military one. Let's get off the flag thingie already.

Americans truly have a psychological problem with this flag thing and I wish they'd get over it!

[gateley]

6. And Presidential candidates getting crucified for not wearing a flag lapel pin. nt

[Sarah Ibarruri]

10. Exactly. Americans are seriously retarded about their flag

American flag-love is identical to that found in fascist nations.

[gateley]

15. Yeah, I'd never given it a thought (except during the brouhaha regarding Obama's

lack of lapel pin) until I read your post. And you're exactly right, only Nazi Germany seems to have had such a fixation regarding their Almighty Flag.

[Sarah Ibarruri]

18. Yep, Nazi Germany had the same degree of obsession with their flag that we do with ours

It's got to be stopped. We've all got to start putting human beings above this obsessive symbol we made up.

[alcibiades_mystery]

24. It's just the everyday stupidity you get used to as a sentient being in this country

People are fucking ridiculous about the flag. It's true. It's also pretty minor, and I don't begrudge people their little obsessions. The whole society is poisoned, fucked in its root. So people have a little thing for the flag. It's just a way to block out the utter fucking depravity of the society as a whole.

[chalky]

7. While I agree wholeheartedly with everything you posted

These flags were a memorial to a fallen neighbor/friend/family member. They most certainly should have stayed.

But I guess the managers flag fear is just the flip-side of the creepy flag-fetish coin.

[Sarah Ibarruri]

9. For God's sakes, WHY must the memorial to a HUMAN BEING be the frikkin flag?

Don't you even see what I'm talking about? Here's a human being, a HUMAN BEING, and people want to remember him (once again dammit) with the FLAG? Again? The FLAG? Sheesh. Can't Americans put HUMAN BEINGS before the frikkin' flag? Guess not.

[chalky]

16. Since he was a marine, I don't see why the flag is such an issue.

Had he been an accountant, yeah I'd call that odd.

[Sarah Ibarruri]

17. So I'm a paralegal, does that mean I have to be wrapped in the NALA banner?

I disagree that the flag has to represent people. Let's use the flag as it's supposed to be used, not as an obsession, or something that represents us as humans. It's 1 small man-invented symbol for one of the countries in the world. Let's leave it at that.

[chalky]

20. If NALA was a large part of your life and if you'd died fighting for NALA, and those were

your wishes, absolutely.

It seems to me that extreme revulsion is just as fetishistic as the extreme worship.
A flag's a piece of cloth. It doesn't have to mean something to me for me to accept that it means something to someone else.

[Sarah Ibarruri]

22. Oh please. Our families are the #1 part of our life, why aren't we covered in banners with our

names on them?

No, instead we stick a flag invented by somebody, as if our country were superior to our humanity, our families, etc.

[chalky]

25. I'm sorry...are we arguing?

Yes, people fetishize the flag. I don't remember disagreeing with you on that.

[Sarah Ibarruri]

28. No really lol I'm sorry. I just think it's all so looney nt

[Libertas1776]

12. I agree

and the flags should have stayed. To me, the US flag represents so much to so many, including both good things and bad things. Although I would never, I honestly have no problem with someone burning the flag in a sincere form of protest, for I believe it to be an extension of the 1st Amendment. I also believe that the flag represents something very deep, emotional, and poignant to anyone who has served or anyone who has had someone die in the service. The rules and regulations regarding flag etiquette were not created to assuage some flag fetishists, but rather as a form of protocol to ensure the continued respect of the flag and the institutions it represents. Do you think we should do away with the myriad of protocols and procedures that are intended to ensure the continued respect of presidency (although they certainly have been damaged for the past 8 years) However, the constant manufacture of plastic flags, stickers, and other assortments of cheap, usually Chinese made miscellany are really overkill.

[Sarah Ibarruri]

13. Flag fetishism - that's exactly the term I was looking for nt

[choie]

11. Amen, Sarah Ibarruri!

[Sarah Ibarruri]

14. Thanks nt

[4lbs]

19. Well, we Americans have TWO days that celebrate the US Flag.

There's July 4th, Independence Day. While not totally about the US Flag, most of the country displays the flag on their porches on this day.

Then we have... Flag Day. Flag Day is actually several weeks before July 4th, being on June 14th.

Furthermore, the week that contains June 14th is designated "Flag Week" and people are encouraged to fly the US flag * ALL WEEK *.

[Sarah Ibarruri]

23. This country is mentally ill with weird ideas, the Nazi-like obsession with flags,patriotic bs

and war is definitely up there

[alcibiades_mystery]

26. Flag Day is only for the indoctrination of children

We know this because nobody has ever gotten a day off work for Flag Day, and because nobody who doesn't have school-age children even gives a shit about it. If you do have school age children, you're bombarded with endless flag projects, flag clothes, flag ceremonies, and other assorted bullshit the sole purpose of which is to inculcate the dumbest, unthinking identity formation imaginable. It is pure propaganda, first devised in the frenzied run-up to the First World war, and codified by a Congress run wild with Red baiting in 1949.

[4lbs]

27. Only one state, Pennsylvania I think, has made Flag Day a state holiday. (n/t)

.

[Cid_B]

30. Germans are touchy about national pride...

Its only ok to feel good about being German during soccer and sometimes the Olympics.

[Libertas1776]

4. Can we have our fucking money back

from these assholes already.

[Po_d Mainiac]

8. Just say NO

No customers, No money, No more BofAssholes

[rhett o rick]

21. Put you money in local Credit Unions. nt

[RebelOne]

29. This was only one branch. Not the entire Bank of America system.

Sorry, I have my money in BofA and I am leaving it there.