Fox & Friends loves the 1st Amendment when it comes to Christians; but they don't seem to know that it also protects flag desecrators. This morning, Elisabeth Hasselbeck didn't mention this inconvenient truth when she gave some Fox love to a patriot who was arrested for, as Hasselbeck indicated, protecting Old Glory from un-American college students.
Hasselbeck opened with video of former USAF Staff Sgt Michelle Manhart giving instructions on flag etiquette to students who walked on an American flag during a protest at ValdostaStateUniversity. The video then showed Manhart being arrested after she refused to return the flag which she took from the students. The banner: "Fight for the Flag."
Hasselbeck said "wow" and informed us that this "intense video of an Air Force veteran arrested after standing up to students who were stomping on the American flag has gone viral." She reported that the school has closed for the day "in anticipation of a massive rally" by real Americans who support the flag. She introduced the flag defending Manhart but didn't mention that Manhart posed for Playboy, in 2007, while holding the Stars and Stripes across her naked body - a photo for which she was reprimanded by the Air Force.
Hasselbeck, breathlessly, noted that more than 4,000 patriots are expected at the rally and asked Manhart if she would be attending. To Hasselbeck's question of whether Manhart, who has been banned from the campus, should be permitted back on the campus, Manhart said she hoped that the ban would be lifted.
Hasselbeck provided some Foxsplaining: "This all began because you saw students trampling all over our flag which represents freedom to so many. When you saw that happening when you saw someone stepping and stomping all over the red, white and blue, our stars and strips, what does that mean to you."
On cue, Manhart articulated the Fox message: "It means a complete disrespect, not only the men and women who are out there fighting for our freedom as a whole, in my opinion they don't have any respect for what they have been given and I don't think that's right, there's nothing about it that's right." She said that the rally is all about freedom. The banner: "Fight for Old Glory, Manhart: We Defend the Flag at all Costs."
Hasselbeck reminded folks that 4,000 people will be "marching for the red, white, and blue, today, in Valdosta."
Ah, don't ya love the smell of freedom in the morning?!
Per US Code Title 4 Chapter 1, Section 8d:
“The flag should never be used as wearing apparel, bedding, or drapery.”
And Section 8j:
“No part of the flag should ever be used as a costume or athletic uniform. However, a flag patch may be affixed to the uniform of military personnel, firemen, policemen, and members of patriotic organizations.”
Something tells me that the “readers” of Playboy would’ve preferred her wearing a flag “patch.”
The fact that she’s former military makes her actions then all the more reprehensible and the fact that she seems to have forgotten why she was in the military in the first place suggests to me that she doesn’t have any respect for the flag OR the country, “for which it stands” (you know—words from the Pledge of Allegiance).
Maybe cutting off any veterans’ benefits would be appropriate given her violations of military protocols AND interfering with other people’s First Amendment rights.
