As the American public diligently goes back to work after honoring the founding of this great nation by celebrating the freedom Americans are privileged enough to enjoy, the U.S. Congress is confronted with a proposed amendment that speaks to the heart of everything we, as Americans, hold dear. Now that the patriotic euphoria of Independence Day has subsided, the talk in Washington, D.C. is not of how to continue to protect the rights of its citizens, but how to limit the public's right to symbolic speech -namely, whether it should be a criminal act to desecrate the American flag.
Although there are many ways to debase a flag, one act above all -flag burning -has come to represent something that is both championed as the ultimate symbol of freedom of speech and also an act deemed to be so vile that it can not be tolerated. Once again, Congress has sought to remedy the debate about protecting the symbol of our great nation; this time, more than ever, it appears that Congress possibly could pass such a measure.
It is disturbing Congress is actually considering chipping away at the protection set forth in the First Amendment by outlawing flag burning. Such a new amendment must follow the path set forth by its predecessors -it must be rejected vehemently.
The right to symbolic speech -i.e., flag burning -is a right the U.S. Supreme Court went to great lengths to protect in the 1989 landmark case Texas v. Johnson (491 U.S. 397). The court ruled that flag desecration is a protected form of symbolic speech -under the protections of the First Amendment -even when the act occurs in a clearly political context.
That interpretation of the Constitution was reaffirmed in 1990 during U.S. v. Eichman (496 U.S. 310). Justice William Brennan, who authored the court's judgment, wrote the bedrock principle underlying the First Amendment ... is that the government may not prohibit the expression of an idea simply because society finds the idea itself offensive or disagreeable.
Aside from the legality of flag burning -which the ruling is clear in stating flag burning is not a crime -it is these words the public and its elected officials need to adhere to whenever this issue arises. The beauty of the First Amendment does not lie in its protection of rights that all citizens support; it is found in its steadfast protection of an individual's rights in the face of the majority's will.
Certain rights are unalienable; that is the foundation of the life, liberty and freedom all Americans share. It is of little consequence recent opinion polls show the majority of Americans support the flag protection act, simply because the Constitution was intended to protect all citizens, regardless of where they reside in the political spectrum.
Banning flag desecration does not protect the American flag -the symbol of our great nation -it only undermines the ideals on which the country was founded. And that fact should be more offensive to society than a burning flag.
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