Flag Desecration.....should it be outlawed?

[Holden McGroin]

Burning the Flag is NOT protected by the constitution.

The flag is a political symbol.

Burning a political symbol is a means of political expression.

Freedom of expression = freedom of speech

Freedom of speech is protected by the constitution.

Therefore burning the flag is protected by the constitution.

[TwentyFo]

You have to draw the line. Burning the Flag in no way protests the government. The Flag is a symbol of the United States..... to desecrate it means you are against all freedoms and unity that the United States stands for.
In fact it makes the culprit a traitor to the US.

Therefore being against all freedom and unity is protected under the constitution.....it's free speech.

Here's another question...Couldn't the wearing of an American Flag (I.E. American flag underwear with skid marks, Bandannas that soak up sweat, handkerchief to wipe boogers from your nose) be considered desecration? I could almost guarantee that one of you guys reading this post has an American flag piece of clothing.

[Yeager]

You have to draw the line. Burning the Flag in no way protests the government. The Flag is a symbol of the United States..... to desecrate it means you are against all freedoms and unity that the United States stands for.
In fact it makes the culprit a traitor to the US.

Thats is certainly one honest way of looking at it.  Here are two other ways of honestly looking at it:

a) protecting the right of fellow Americans to burn the flag, under the act of political speech, strengthens all of us.  The nation is worth dying for, the flag is worth defending, but the right to dissent is fundamental to being an American.
 
b) allowing people to burn the flag allows the rest of us to see who they are.  Having the rest of us see them for the morons they are is punishment enough.

[Chairboy]

Well said, Yeager.

[Shuffler]

The above posts since my last post is the reason we have so many problems in the United States.... these folks are not proud of this nation yet won't leave.

As for defining what is free and what isn't... guess your against all laws as they inhibit your freedom too. Burn the US Flag in our town and your likely to just disappear.... like many small towns there is right and wrong... none of that middle turf some of you thrill to tread in.

I'm shocked that anyone would use terrorist to try to make their point backing their Flag burning. The terrorist think less of you than the rag on their head.... to them your life and your families life means nothing.

[Yeager]

The above posts since my last post is the reason we have so many problems in the United States.... these folks are not proud of this nation yet won't leave.

As for defining what is free and what isn't... guess your against all laws as they inhibit your freedom too. Burn the US Flag in our town and your likely to just disappear.... like many small towns there is right and wrong... none of that middle turf some of you thrill to tread in.

your dissent is well noted.

I believe strongly in the right of people to dissent.  Dissent is in many ways our primary compound as a collection of people, but I dont think a small town that would disappear someone for burning a flag is a very good thing to have in America.  It reminds me of those small towns that would hang a man just for being black.

[Shuffler]

Don't worry yeager the blacks have more rights in the US than most others now. So we are paying for what someone else did. The only bunch that might have rights equal or surpassing the blacks now are the illegals. But all that has nothing to do with Flag burning. There can be no equality without equality.

[Yeager]

Don't worry yeager the blacks have more rights in the US than most others now.

I'm not disagreeing with you.  On the flag burning issue my thoughts have really changed over the years.

[MiloMorai]

In Canada it is OK to do a dance on the Canadian flag in a mud hole but do the same to the Quebec flag and les habitants go on beserker rampages and demand an official public apology from the Government.

[Chairboy]

Shuffler, while I disagree with you, I cherish the fact that we live in a country where your right to be silly is protected. 

I wouldn't want it any other way.

[Shuffler]

I'm not disagreeing with you.  On the flag burning issue my thoughts have really changed over the years.

I must apologize for how I'm coming across. I mean you no disreaspect, however I have VERY strong feeling for my Country, Flag, and Family.

[Blooz]

You should have as much right to burn the flag as you would to burn other symbols of our country.

Burn the Lincoln Memorial.
Set fire to the White House.
Burn the money in your pocket.
Burn the Constitution itself.
Set fire to a flock of Bald Eagles.
Go start a fire in Arlington National Cemetary.

You wouldn't get far burning any of these things.

Burning the flag is not speech. If you can't write it down, you're not speaking. You are acting.
That's why the First Amendment protects free Speech and Press. It is the spoken word and the written word. Nothing else.

[Chairboy]

Shuffler: I perceive is a very strong interest in the flag on your part, but an interest that overlooks the concepts that the flag stands for.  Specifically, the fact that our Constitution recognizes our right to make an inflammatory (pardon the pun) political statement by burning the flag is one of the core ideals our country was founded on.

Our country is strong enough to weather the clumsy machinations of firebrands with a Wal-Mart flag (made in China) because we choose not to give them the power over us that you seem to believe exists. 

My United States can't be hurt by a hippy with a pair of matches. 

My nation is woven out of a fabric that burns brightly with the ideals and loyalty of millions of patriots...  but never crumbles.  That light has burned for over 230 years and I hope it will continue to illuminate the promise and benefits of freedom for hundreds more.

Shuffler, I hope that someday your trust in the strength of our Constitution rises to the occasion, and that your confidence in our nation can meet that of those who work and sacrifice every day to keep the promise made by Washington, Franklin, Jefferson, and the rest of our founding fathers.

[Hornet33]

Burning the flag is a form of free speach. I would never do it, but to each their own I suppose. Point is if some idiot want's to go out and burn the American Flag, well they have that right and the luxury of living in a country that will allow them to do so in the name of free political dissent. As long as they don't try and burn "MY" American Flag I don't care what they do with theirs. Someone trys to desecrate my flag I'll beat them to a pulp.

[Tango]

No, but freedom of speech is.  Burning the flag in protest of the government, within the context of peaceful dissent, must be protected as free speech or our free country drops another notch into a great has been of a nation.

You REALLY think thats what the founders of this country meant when they wrote the Constitution?

What they meant was the ability to SPEAK out against thier differences.