The Flag
Sigmund, Carl and Alfred has a excellent post about the current flag burning amendment (which lost in the Senate yesterday) debate here.
Like SC & A I have to question the timing of this debate when larger issues (Iraq, N Korea, immigration, Katrina fraud, etc) are at hand. This debate is only going on now for ONE reason - politics. The Republican party is attempting to stir it’s base and wave the flag (right before the 4th too mind you). The November election is going to be nationalized (like every election since 1994) and the question will be which party (not which politician) do you want to guide the nation for the next few years. This is a tactic used by both parties at different times in different ways, so even though the Republicans are using the flag burning issue to stir support the Democrats do the same thing in other ways. Simply there are no pure hearts and clean hands in politics.
The real truth of the matter is that flag burning, which is now legal due to Tx vs Johnson, is RARE. So rare that it is a virtual none issue. If you ban it then people will actually probably do it more (as a sign of protest). Now you burn Old Glory and it is forgotten about by most within a day.
Personally, flag burning is a issue I have shifted my views on. I use to be a strong supporter of a flag burning amendment but the honest truth is if you are a American citizen that hates America (and it’s policies) enough the burn the flag you should have the right to burn it. I would also say you have the obligation to leave as well as if you had something that much you should not be forced to live under it either, so migrate to the nation of your choice. I will even help you with the paperwork.
Simply if you reach a point where burning the flag of the nation you live in is something you want/ need to do then you have already marginalized yourself so much that no one is listening to you anyone anyway. Burning the flag does not destroy the fabric of America, or any nation. The fabric / content of a FREE nation is not comprised of symbols, but of people, and individual views of those people, that make up a nation.
If you hate this nation enough to burn the flag, then burn it and then leave. I say leave not because you should be forced too, but because you should want too. No free person should have to live in a place they hate that much. If you desire to see the nation destroyed, the natural conclusion if you want to burn the symbol of the nation, then go and work toward that from a place where you and your views are more compatible.
Now back to flag burning in general. Nations that fear destruction of their symbols so much that they have to protect them under theat of law probably have more to fear then just the destruction of their symbols. Repressive nations have to protect images of their nation / leader (see Iraq under Saddam, North Korea, China, the former USSR, etc). Free nations can handle the symbol of their nation (and their leaders) being destroyed because those symbols are not what give the nation strength it is the unity of the people behind the nation that gives the nation strength.
Every time someone sparks off a Zippo on Old Glory, 5 or 10 people are motivated / excited by it, and 5,000 to 10,000 are offended. The offended masses will then look at the “burners” and completely ignore their demands and ideas. That fact alone will keep most people from lighting up the flag. Those that do however will only find themselves more ignored then before.
That is how freedom of speech is suppose to work in a free nation. People are allowed to say and do offensive things, as long as they do not threaten the rights, lives, and freedoms of others, and then the rest of society decides if the person is worth listening too or not.
