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Letters to the Editor

Burning flags is just wrong

To the Journal editor:

It was in extreme poor taste for The Mining Journal to publish a cartoon Dec. 2 showing Uncle Sam pouring gasoline on a burning flag of the United States. Consider that many Americans have risked their lives just to uphold that old standard on the battlefield.

Benson, the cartoonist, seems to believe that the free speech clause in the Bill of Rights justifies the burning of the American flag. That conclusion could only be reached by convoluted argument. The word speech means things that are said and by extension in this context things that are written.

Do you really think that our founding fathers would have thought that destroying a national symbol was permissible through some kind of peculiar interpretation of free speech?

If vicious acts are now to be included as examples of free speech then I suppose anything goes and that is anarchy, which is also a goal of the flag-burners.

John W. Morabito

Marquette

Editor’s note: The U.S. Supreme Court held in Texas vs. Johnson (1989) that flag burning is protected speech under the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

Performance was memorable

To the Journal editor:

I would like to take this opportunity to thank the Marquette Choral Society for their beautiful performance of Handel’s “Messiah.” In St. Paul’s letter to the Corinthians 14:8 he asks: “… If the trumpet send forth an uncertain sound, who will respond to the battle?”

(Recently) there were certainly no uncertain sounds in St. Peter Cathedral as the Choral Society outdid themselves with a sterling performance to a capacity audience both nights. What a wonderful blessing to those who witnessed the beauty of Sacred Scripture set to the genius musical ability of Frederic Handel. Many thanks to Dr. Erin Colwitz, the Marquette Choral Society and all those who made this concert possible.

I hope that more performances of this calibre will be forthcoming.

Timothy Presley

Skandia

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