Asheville has a new conversation piece. A rainbow flag was unfurled on city hall yesterday. I do not care to get into the symbolism of the flag, as it has something to do with what people do with their private parts, and private parts are private.
Pete Kaliner at 570 AM WWNC provided the play-by-play and ascertained all members of city council approved the foisting/hoisting informally, bypassing any public meeting or notice thereof. The local daily is holding City Councilman Gordon Smith up as the instigator.
“We received a query from the community and wanted to do something to recognize this momentous time in our history,” Smith said.
“Council has already made clear its support for LGBT members of our community.”
Kaliner recalled trouble people got into in South Carolina for trying to fly a Confederate flag on public property. The argument is that the Confederate flag is a symbol of hate, racism and war; but the rainbow symbolizes love, equality and economic prosperity. (Before that, it symbolized that the world would no longer be destroyed by flood; but plague, pestilence, famine and the sword were still options. I digress.) Kaliner found it ironic that a group championing equality wanted to be more equal than others with special flag privileges.
It’s all symbolic, so sitting here, I do not feel any additional physical or psychological damage. However, I was thinking of, perhaps by proper resolution, turning city hall into a free speech zone, like one of those fraternity rocks. People could hoist their flags, paint over or desecrate others’ flags, and, most importantly, paint-spray the whole thing up, since members of council and city staff are still struggling to figure out the difference between graffiti and art. No public funds should be expended in “cleaning” the public crime net, as anybody who wants a traditional building has the free speech to contract with sandblasters.
