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Freedom to burn our flag
© St. Petersburg Times, " 'No,' I said. 'That proves that I am right. In my country we are not afraid of freedom, even if it means that people disagree with us.' The officer was on his feet in an instant, his face purple with rage. . . . I was astonished to see pain, compounded by fear, in his eyes. I have never forgotten that look, nor have I forgotten the satisfaction I felt at using his tool, the picture of the burning flag, against him." Warner, now a Washington D.C. attorney, wrote that piece to explain how the value in the American flag emanates not from the cloth but from the principles of freedom it represents. Giving citizens the right to dissent from the government, even in a way as offensive and inarticulate as burning the flag, is not an example of our country's weakness but of its greatest strength. There are plenty of countries that don't permit their citizens to burn their nation's flag -- China, Iran and Cuba -- but they are not places we should want to emulate. Upholding the right to burn the flag is the very essence of who we are as a liberty-loving people. This month, as it does every year or so, Congress is expected to take up the Flag Desecration Amendment and rousing super-majorities are expected to vote "yes." The amendment would give Congress the power to make it a crime to physically desecrate the American flag. It would be the first circumscribing amendment to the Bill of Rights in more than 200 years. Three times since 1995, the House has passed the constitutional change by the needed two-thirds majority. One year, it escaped similar passage in the Senate by only two votes. There is hope that this go-around the margin of victory for freedom of expression will be somewhat larger, enough so supporters might back off. If so, it won't be because of Florida's two Democratic senators. Both Bob Graham and Bill Nelson support the constitutional change -- an act of pandering that mocks their oath of office to uphold the Constitution. In an example of double-speak, the American Legion calls this amendment a measure of one's patriotism. It is anything but. Patriots such as former astronaut and U.S. Sen. John Glenn and Secretary of State Colin Powell have expressed their opposition to the flag amendment on love-of-country grounds. For them and thousands of war veterans like James Warner, the principles that make our nation a model of freedom for the world are what our flag represents and what a flag desecration amendment would diminish.
 © 2006 • All Rights Reserved • St. Petersburg Times
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From the Times Opinion page |
