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Indybay Feature

8th Annual Old-Time American Flag Burn

800_flagburn_flier_poster_2.jpg
Date:
Tuesday, July 03, 2012
Time:
7:30 PM - 10:00 PM
Event Type:
Vigil/Ritual
Organizer/Author:
Brent Adams
Location Details:
The most westerly burn barrel on SeaBright Beach, Santa Cruz.

Gathering begins at 7:30pm
Ritual begins at Sunset

Consecration or Desecration? It's your choice.

This is a community burn ritual where folks are welcome to burn flags in any way they wish.

In years past, many in Congress were actively working to remove this rarely expressed but very important component of free speech. We felt it was important to begin exercising this right. Knowing it was contentious, we celebrated it in a patriotic manner. "If the American flag is a symbol of freedom then a burning flag is the highest symbol of American freedom." We said. But we realize that some want to actually burn the flag for other reasons, specifically as protest.

We welcome to you come and express yourself by burning the flag, money, an effigy or any other burnable item with us.

We create a "safe space" for this activity.

If you'd like to offer something to brighten the event, such as music, art etc. you're very welcome to do so.

This is a BYOF event and we won't be providing anything other than the space as a container for this community event.

"One may legally burn a flag but one may not legally sleep underneath one."
Added to the calendar on Thu, Jun 28, 2012 9:40AM
§8th annual old time American Flag Burn
by Brent Adams
Most Westerly fire ring on SeaBright Beach, Santa Cruz

This is a community burn ritual where folks are welcome to burn flags in any way they wish.

In years past, many in Congress were actively working to remove this rarely expressed but very important component of free speech. We felt it was important to begin exercising this right. Knowing it was contentious, we celebrated it in a patriotic manner. "If the American flag is a symbol of freedom then a burning flag is the highest symbol of American freedom." We said. But we realize that some want to actually burn the flag for other reasons, specifically as protest.

We welcome to you come and express yourself by burning the flag, money, an effigy or any other burnable item with us.

We create a "safe space" for this activity.

If you'd like to offer something to brighten the event, such as music, art etc. you're very welcome to do so.

This is a BYOF event and we won't be providing anything other than the space as a container for this community event.

Comments (Hide Comments)
by Wicked Cynic
a few of us (50% or less of those invited may turn out) are planning one for the first Tuesday in November.
When put that way, ouch.
by Zachary RunningWolf (runningwolf.zachary [at] yahoo.com)
We love it and we are having a Farce of July with 100 flags to be burned. In solidarity Bezerkeley
by me
I searched for details of this event a week ago and found nothing.
Then I searched again on Tues, July 3 and suddenly learned that the event had already begun.

I rushed down there and arrived after sunset.

Seabright Beach seemed a clear enough direction, however, when I arrived, at the end of Seabright Avenue, the white, easily readable sign pronouced the beach as "Twin Lakes Beach"

After I got out of my car, I discovered a very dark brown "State of California" sign, also proclaiming this to be "Seabright Beach"
So I assumed I was in the right place, but I wondered: why didn't the organizers name the beach with the most obvious name: "Twin Lakes"?
Wierd. Unless they feared an attack of the 'FLAG WAVING PATRIOTS' or something along those lines - quite reasonable fear, in any case ....

The date of the event on the flier was described as "Wednesday, July 3".
Well, since Wednesday is July 4, this also left me wondering: am I at the right place, at the right time.
Google informed me that previous year flag-burnings were on July 3, so I felt safe but still wondering: how could anyone fail to notice a glaring error like this, on an artful flier, none the less? Oh well, maybe flag burners smoke a lot of pot, I figured. No problem.

The location of the event was described as "The west most firepit".
This also seemed ambiguous since the Santa Cruz coastline runs mostly North - South.
The natural description, unless you want to remain ambiguous would have been to say "North-most firepit".

I assumed North was also West-most and wandered up there, playing my guitar.

I walked past a dozen fire pits with mostly inebriated college kids having fun.

I was hoping to find something a bit more solemn, respectful, maybe even reverential.
At the final 'Western-most' aka Northern-most fire pit, what I found was a loud boom box blasting music that didn't seem to have anything to do with a respectful act like ritual flag / money burning.

I sat quietly and played my guitar for a few minutes: a medly of 'God Bless America' and 'We Shall Overcome', then I walked past each of the dozen fire pits along the shore playing, watching the beautiful full moon, hoping that someone would recognize the 'We Shall Overcome' melody and invite me in. It didn't happen.

I guess I could have approached each, seemingly identical firepit, and asked each one something like: "Uh, are you the guys burning flags tonight?" but somehow this seemed ridiculous: if the flag burners are so afraid of doing it publicly, maybe I don't care to join them anyway.

I'll try again next year. If you are there, I'll try to arrive earlier. Sorry I missed you.
Thanks for trying.
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