We have right to burn flag
As of this writing, Congress is on the edge, between Flag Day, June 14, and the end of the month, of passing the first ever constitutional amendment to our glorious Bill of Rights (ratified in 1791), which is unmatched anywhere in the world in its guarantees of fundamental personal liberties against the government. The Flag Desecration Amendment (SJR 12) authorizes Congress to prohibit any “physical desecration” of the American flag — thereby carving out an exception to the First Amendment, from which all our liberties flow.
Last year, the House passed this desecration of the First Amendment by an eight-vote margin. And on May 4, in a 6-to-3 vote, the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution also placed the First Amendment in jeopardy. If approved by the full Judiciary Committee, it may be that only one or two votes on the Senate floor will keep the First Amendment intact. Otherwise, this constitutional amendment will go directly to the state legislatures for ratification.
The day before Flag Day last year, the Houston Chronicle underlined what we will lose if this amendment becomes law:
“It makes no sense to set fire to the Bill of Rights to prevent a few people from protesting in a way that many find offensive. The right to speak our minds in public and engage in protest is at the core of our system of government. The only way to effectively desecrate the American flag would be to undercut the freedom for which it stands.”
And Sen. Robert Byrd, D-W.V. — who carries the Constitution in his DNA — speaks for James Madison across the centuries: “In the final analysis, it is the Constitution — not the flag — that is the foundation and guarantor of the people’s liberties.”
Among the many veterans opposing the Flag Desecration Amendment is Gary May, who lost both legs in Vietnam while serving with K Company, 3rd Battalion, 27 Marines. Last year, he said: “This amendment would not honor veterans; it would attack the very principles that inspired us to serve our country. … We fought for a society free of repression and filled with open debate.”
This year, on May 6, Gary May added: “I did not lose my legs, and nearly my life, to protect a symbol.”
Of all the personal stories by veterans against this attempt to change the Constitution to limit open debate in this country, the most powerful was by James Warner, who, during a previous debate, told of his imprisonment by the North Vietnamese from 1967 to 1973 after volunteering for duty there and flying more than 100 missions before being shot down. Refusing to accede to his captors’ offer to be released if he admitted this country had been wrong in Vietnam, Warner was tortured and spent 13 months in solitary confinement.
During one interrogation, an enemy officer gleefully showed Warner a photograph of Americans protesting the war by burning the flag.
“There,” the officer crowed, “people in your country protest against your cause! That proves you are wrong!”
If only Congress and the president would listen to Warner’s answer to the rejoicing jailer: “No. That (photograph) proves 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. He smashed his fist on the table and screamed at me to shut up. While he was ranting, I was astonished to see pain, confounded 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 a burning flag — against him.”
he only countries I know that punish the desecration of their flags are China, Iran and Cuba.
Do we want to join those dictatorships?
Nat Hentoff is a nationally renowned authority on the First Amendment and the Bill of Rights.