After the crosstown DGN and DGS football game Oct. 18, students from DGS took a bed sheet spray painted with the words “actually, this is our town” from the DGN student section. Two DGS students then proceeded to burn the sheet on a basketball court and send videos of themselves doing so to the owner of the bed sheet.

The DGS student section hung up a bed sheet with the writing “this is our town” on it in front of their fans at the beginning of the game. DGN students saw this and created their own bed sheet in a act to one-up the other student section.

This incident was black and white in the sense that the bed sheet was white and the spray paint used was black. However, to many DGN students the sheet was more than something you covered your bed with; It was a flag.

Similar situations have been going on for a long time. Flag desecration is nothing new. In this scenario, the flag burned wasn’t an American flag. It was just a piece of fabric with a slogan on it. But the reason why it was burned is similar to many of the reasonings in flag desecration today.

The flag, although just a bed sheet, turned into an emblem of the DGN student section. It no longer was something that just could be disposed of. Pictures were taken of it, and it was displayed proudly.

The DGS students burned the flag because they knew it meant something to the other student section. They did it to make a statement. They wouldn’t have posted pictures or videos on their social media otherwise.

The flag was burned on public property without a permit, and therefore was misdemeanor, but truly was hate speech.

Similarly, people burn the American flag in a form of hate speech. They want people to see them destroy an emblem that most of America idolizes.

Burning an American flag and burning a spray painted bed sheet may look like two totally different things. However, the reasoning behind the desecration of both emblems are the exact same.

I am in no way implying that the DGS students who did the burning agree with desecration of the American flag. Instead, I’m comparing why they would burn the bed sheet in the first place.

Instead of trying to cover their acts by saying “It was just a bed sheet”, they should own up to their acts. If it was truly just a bed sheet, and there was no meaning behind it, then they wouldn’t have burnt it in the first place.