EDITORIAL: Offensive flag marred parade

Published 8:15 am Wednesday, August 10, 2022

There are better ways to express disdain for the Biden-Harris administration than flying a flag with the slogan “Jo & The Ho Gotta Go.”

And there are better places to do so than a parade that honors an event which raises money to provide free medical care to children with debilitating conditions.

This has nothing to do with the First Amendment, to be sure.

The purveyors of the float at the end of the Shrine parade on Saturday, Aug. 6 in downtown Baker City had the right to display that flag. About that there is no question. Which is as it should be — indeed, must be.

But along with that sacred right, which is at the heart of what we mean in America when we talk of freedom, the people who flew that flag also had a choice.

They chose badly.

The slogan is offensive. It’s a slur against Vice President Kamala Harris, one that suggests the people who brandish it couldn’t conceive of a more substantive criticism than a two-letter “word” that rhymes with the president’s first name.

But it was the venue that made the flag especially obnoxious.

The Shriners, whose efforts on behalf of children and families are beyond reproach, didn’t deserve to have their event sullied. Even though the Shriners neither condoned the flag nor had any responsibility for its appearance, it was part of their parade.

It’s a pity that those who attached the flag to the float didn’t have more respect for the Shriners, their mission and the purpose of the parade.

To reiterate, if you feel compelled to drive around with a flag bearing a moronic slogan, well, you can, thanks to the Bill of Rights, that concise list that continues to ennoble America after nearly two and a half centuries.

But there’s nothing noble about marring a parade which celebrates the best of which we are capable, with a message that represents the very opposite.

— Jayson Jacoby, Baker City Herald editor