Burning the Constitution to Protect the Flag
posted by
Wally
9:22 AM
Congress should protect our Freedoms, not our symbols.
Now that they've solved all the other pressing problems in the country, the Senate is about to begin debate, again, on a flag desecration amendment. This is sort of a biennial event - every election year it rears its ugly and unnecessary head. Problem is, this time it might actually pass. While we at dubyaD40.com respect and revere our flag, we see it as a symbol of something much much greater - a symbol of a whole myriad of Freedoms that we have kind of gotten used to. We find the irony almost overwhelming in diminishing the freedom of expression by protecting the ultimate symbol of the freedom of expression. The Bill of Rights is the envy of freedom lovers everywhere. It has not changed one whit in the more than two centuries since it was written.
Now Congress wants to amend it to shrink the protection it provides for unpopular political expression. The issue is a proposal to authorize Congress to prohibit desecration of the American flag.
(snip)
Do they think they're more patriotic than Gen. Colin Powell, the former secretary of state? He said in opposing a flag desecration amendment, "The First Amendment exists to insure that freedom of speech and expression applies not just to that with which we agree or disagree, but also that which we find outrageous."
Marine Col. John Glenn the astronaut and former U.S. senator? He said, "To say that we should restrict the type of speech or expression that would outrage a majority of listeners or move them to violence is to say that we will tolerate only those kinds of expression that the majority agrees with, or at least does not disagree with too much. That would do nothing less than gut the First Amendment."
LINK
To those who say that making it a crime to desecrate the flag would do little to restrict our freedoms, let me point out some the other nations that have such laws: China, North Korea, Cuba, Iran, Iraq (before we shocked and awed them), etc. Nice company we'd be keeping. To those who say "since so few people do it, hardly anyone would be impacted" I say, exactly. What's the point? The point is, it's all politics. They're threatening to diminish the Bill of Rights in order to score political points in an election year. They're selling your rights for a few votes. They are dancing on our most sacred of documents, shouting about how patriotic they are by protecting our flag. Even Republicans are apalled by this politicking at the expense of our Constitution. "The House and Senate floor is about substantive work for the nation, and I think campaigns ought to be kept in the streets where they belong," said former House Republican Leader Dick Armey of Texas. "Frist seems to be going about 80 percent politics and 20 percent policy, though I would be hard pressed to find what that 20 percent is."
Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the second-ranking Republican leader in the Senate said "Protecting the First Amendment takes precedence. I think the First Amendment has served us well for over 200 years. I don't think it needs to be altered.
LINK" What they don't see, or what they are hoping that we don't see, is that they are defacing our Constitution to save the flag. You know what I have to say about that?
Arrest this man!
ON further review, I found this interesting little tidbit.
According to U.S. Legal Code, Title 4, Chapter 1, Section 8:
"(k) The flag, when it is in such condition that it is no longer a fitting emblem for display, should be destroyed in a dignified way, preferably by burning."
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