The House passed an amendment to the Constitution today that bans the descecration of flags. It reads:
The Congress shall have power to prohibit the physical desecration of the flag of the United States.
Of course, it doesn’t mean anything unless the Senate and state legislatures approves it, and it seems quite unlikely that this would occur. Still, the possibility represents one of the most frightening afforts to free speech within my lifetime.
The First Amendment
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
This couldn’t be a whole lot clearer: there can be no law prohibiting people from freely expressing themselves. I think the legal side of things is covered.
Appallingly, the Chairman of the Citizens Flag Alliance declared today that “today’s vote is a victory for free speech.”
This is a solution in dire need of a problem. So what if people burn flags? Veterans line up to explain that it’s offensive to them to see flags burned. What about the Constitution? Bibles? These are offensive to people. The expression that needs to be protected is the expression that is offensive. There is no need to create laws to protect expression that’s OK by everybody. It’s not as if there’s been some huge rash of flag-burning. It’s something that’s done sporadically at protests to indicate distate with an action by the United States. Not a big deal.
I was discussing this proposed amendment with some folks recently. They said that we should have such an amendment. Flag burning, they explained, “just isn’t necessary.” I guess we’re determining what’s legal on the basis of what’s “necessary” now. I did manage to ask what they thought about burning foreign flags. That should be illegal, too, I was told. I didn’t want to pursue the discussion (it was neither the time nor place), but I wish I could have continued. What about the Iraqi flag, would that be OK? How about the Nazi flag?
I honestly can’t fathom what would lead somebody to conclude that our laws should be crafted on the basis of what is or is not necessary. And I also can’t understand how somebody can fail to see that the path that we’re headed down is very dangerous, establishing that offensive speech should be banned on a Constitutional level.
As baffled as I might be by certain aspects of this, there is one thing that I’m confident in: if this law passes, I will promptly desecrate a flag. Perhaps in D.C., perhaps here in Charlottesville. I will purchase a U.S. flag, don a t-shirt that declares that “I AM A PATRIOT,” stand in front of a government landmark, light ‘er up and watch my freedoms turn to ash.