Coyote's Den

The Flag-Burning Amendment

Great... an amendment to limit the freedoms the American flag is supposed to stand for. What won't they think of next?

The flag is not important as a physical object so much as a symbol, of the spirit of freedom, and the price paid for it. It is a symbol of the sacrifices made for freedom, and the highest spiritual ideals associated with it. That's what flags are for. They are symbols of what we stand for.

You cannot destroy, defame, or harm what the flag represents by destroying the physical embodiment of the flag. You cannot hurt the flag by burning it. You can only hurt the flag, and the things it represents, by restricting the rights that it stands for, including the right to freedom of expression.

To invest the physical representation of the flag with laws protecting it from harm is like saying that a few pieces of colored cloth are more important than the freedoms that people died to pass on to their children and countrymen. It is saying that indeed, those freedoms count for little.

Such a law would be a travesty. You can burn only cloth with that fire. With those laws, you can destroy what the cloth is a symbol of.

When I see a flag being burned, to me, it is a cry for help, a cry for justice, a sign that we must examine whether the sacred freedoms were already trampled. To punish the people who burn a flag because they feel America has not lived up to it's job of protecting their rights and freedoms is merely proof that they are correct. When a flag is burned, it is a sign that we must pay attention, not punish.

Okay... It's sometimes a sign that someone's just being a jerk or making a bid for attention. If being a jerk or making bids for attention were illegal though, all our politicians would be locked up.

My maternal grandfather fought in World War 2. He was injured more than once and risked his life to protect our country. He has since passed on... and while I know that he would NEVER burn a flag, he told me many times that he was against the laws that would make it illegal to do so. He said he thought that people were idiots to burn the flag, but that they had the right to do it.

My father's father served in both WW1 and WW2. He and my father taught me how to fold a flag and properly care for it. I'm not against the flag. I'm strongly in favor of the freedoms it is supposed to represent. I am strongly against the heinous error of protecting the symbol, while violating what it stands for. That flag has been waved far too many times over unjust causes. That's not what it's for.

I am willing to choose who I vote for based on this issue alone. Free speech _seems_ like a small thing... until you realize that when it is impinged upon, it becomes harder and harder to defend every other freedom. I've heard the argument that this should be a special case where free speech should not be allowed. Uh-huh... what's the next special case gonna be?

If the constitution can be altered and amended so easily, over such non-issues as flag-burning (how many flags are burned every year? How many people are harmed by the burning of a flag? How many flags are burned that are not the property of the people burning them?), then I feel that future civil liberties are in ever-increasing jeopardy.

The flag-burning amendment is , IMHO, more of a "flag-waving" motion (Ow... pun)... designed to create noise, without improving life in our country. It is a waste of time, as well as an abrogation of the free speech rights that so many people died to protect.

If the constitution is amended, it should be in such a way that freedoms are protected, quality of life is improved, and justice for PEOPLE - not articles of cloth - is preserved. I would support an amendment that makes women equally-protected and empowered citizens. I would support an amendment guaranteeing freedoms to all of us. I will never support an amendment that inhibits the very right to free speech that was such a primary motivation for founding this country that it is part of our FIRST amendment rights... along with freedom of religion.

If I ever burn a flag... it'll be to put it out of it's misery, because people have forgotten what it stands for.