Yesterday I drove through (more or less) the Ron Paul rally down by Little Five, at Freedom Park. While I personally haven’t yet formed a strong opinion about Mr. Paul one way or the other, I’m just glad to see actual public involvement going on, so I rolled down my window and took a flyer. Glad to see you out with the banners and all that, people. Keep it up.

Except for you, patriot dude dressed as, I dunno, Thomas Jefferson? I like a tricorne hat as much as the next (probably more than the next guy), but if you’re campaigning, rallying, and dressed like a patriot, even if you’ve dropped some of your flyers and you’re just bending down to pick them up, try to remember this: Do not let the flag touch the ground. Come on, man. That’s disrespectful.

Listen, I think burning the flag is a perfectly acceptable form of free expression. I think dragging an American flag through the mud is a legal (if inelegent) and fair form of protest. But I also think it’s the bazooka of the protest world and a) you shouldn’t fire bazookas at small targets and b) you shouldn’t play with a bazooka when you’re hanging out, promoting an American presidential candidate, and dressed like James Madison (or whomever). That thing might go off.

Just saying.