Sacred

I remember a teacher I had, who was intrigued by the power of words and symbols. About how people could revere a symbol but behave entirely differently towards the actual thing it represented - and see nothing wrong with this.

She gave the example of a group of men who were outraged by the burning of a flag. They shouted at reporters about how the people who burned the flag had disrespected this country. All the while, these shouting indignant men were chewing tobacco and spitting on the ground between sentences.

So we have:

1) People burning a piece of cloth. - Forget what it symbolizes. They didn't physically harm anyone or anything of our country. What they burned was a piece of fabric.

2) Indignant men standing around actually spitting ON our country as they spoke.