Someone Should Do Something About All the Problems

Adding to the list of election year stunts, the Republican majority has pushed the anti-Flag desecration Amendment to the floor of the Senate for debate. Let me clear up right at the front that anything I say is not an attack on Republicans only, especially since many of them are smart and decent enough to oppose this nonsense, and some Democrats are just desperate and dumb enough to support it.

This is another thing that I just don't understand. At least when people are opposed to gay marriage they have some sort of moral or religious reason to back it up; in this case I don't think "You shall not burn your own flag" fell anywhere near the Ten Commandments. Burning the American flag, or desecrating it, are forms of free expression, which is a foundation for, if not what our country stands for, than at least for the ideals we pretend to stand for. Do I think it's a bit misguided? Yes, if only because it's too easy a target and represents too many different things to serve as a proper protest in most cases. It represents our government in it's present form, it represents our history, it represents ideals that we strive for, and unless you are ready to protest all of those various things, all it does is make a mess of your argument and distract from whatever valid points you have. Also, it's incendiary (pun intended). Some people get irrationally upset over the burning of a flag, as though you had dug up a veteran and then burned the corpse. Perhaps it's because violent protests overseas often involve the burning of U.S. flags. So, really, if you're trying to make a legitimate argument, burning the flag immediately shuts a lot of people's ears and makes them equate you with a terrorist, so it's not an effective means of creating change. That's why I'm opposed to it. Otherwise, I think people should be free to do whatever they want with the flag.

Why? Well, because freedom of expression is a cornerstone of any democracy, and specifically ours, and ensuring that this right is protected is the only way to ensure that truth will be protected and change will be allowed to come when it is needed. Also, the desecration of a flag has no consequence other than a little smoke, so unless this is meant to protect the environment, it's foolish. Burning a flag is not some gateway rebellion that will lead to armed conflict, it is simply a symbolic way of expressing anger or disappointment.

Some people like to think that the American flag is some holy object, deserving of greater respect than our leaders or our laws, and certainly more important than even our Constitution. I had a professor in college who, not long after the September attacks asked our class how many people had American flags in their windows or on their cars. It was roughly 80-90 percent of the class. When he asked how many of us had voted in the Presidential election, it was four of us. Four out of 40. Clearly the 10 percent of us who weren't flag waving were too busy actually participating in the Democracy to participate in such shallow displays. If anything, I think it's more disrespectful to paste a photocopy of the flag in the window of your SUV. It's more tacky and insulting to print it on your t-shirt or as a design on your underwear. It's shallow and ironic to buy up cheap flags at Wal-Mart, made in China. If the flag is deserving of such protection as a Constitutional Amendment, then perhaps we should devote more time to protecting the things it stands for in our minds.

I think it's more damaging to the integrity of our nation and our flag to ban its desecration. The flag is a symbol. It is the physical expression of an idea or an institution. Are we saying that this expression should be protected, but that any counter expression should not? Are we saying that the good things about our country should be said loudly and proudly, but the negative things should be hidden and kept silent under punishment of law?

I think burning the flag sends the wrong message, but it is not my right nor the right of anyone else to tell people what message they want to send. If someone wants to express themselves this way, so be it. Make laws to ensure that it is done safely, or with precaution, but to make an Amendment banning any form of free expression certainly sends the wrong message, not only to us but to the world. When we are desperately trying to convince the world that we are great lovers of freedom and liberty, this is not the message we should be sending.

On a side note, if the Senate should get so far as to pass this, which I certainly hope they won't, then I think it should be amended to protect the flag from being defiled by hypocrites and cowards. In order to buy a flag, you should be required to take a test on the Constitution. You should only be allowed to buy flags made in America. You should be able to prove that, if you are over 18, that you voted in the last election, Presidential or otherwise, unless you were in the hospital or in the midst of battle. The right to own or display a flag should not be permitted for people who commit corporate crime or lie to the American people. The right to wave the flag should be kept from people who care only about the symbol and nothing about the ideas for which it stand. And, it should be kept from anyone who supports a war with a country that they can't point to on a globe.