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About this quote

What does it mean?
No national symbol can justify killing innocents for unachievable goals.
In plain terms
Flags cannot hide the shame of killing civilians.
What can you take from it?
Violence against innocents cannot be glorified by symbols.

Where it applies

  • anti war protests
  • historical debates
  • humanitarian crises

Putting it to work

  • critiquing nationalism
  • advocating for peace
  • remembering victims

Questions to consider

  • What justifies harm to innocents?
  • How do we measure shame?

Another view

Some may argue collateral damage is unavoidable in conflict.

More from Howard Zinn

  1. If patriotism were defined, not as blind obedience to government, nor as submissive worship to flags and anthems, but rather as love of one's country, one's fe…

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  2. The First Amendment and Fourteenth Amendment rights in the United States Constitution were being violated in Albany again and again - freedom of speech, freedo…

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  3. At the great Washington March of 1963, the chairman of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee, John Lewis, speaking to the same enormous crowd that hea…

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