A Burning Issue

As early as next week*, the Senate may consider an amendment to the Constitution that would specifically ban the burning of the American Flag.  This time, it may pass.  Senator Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) says he’s got 66 votes, just one vote shy of the two-thirds majority needed to send the proposed amendment to the states for ratification.  The House has already approved the amendment, and if it passes, it will mark the first time in history that both houses of Congress have voted to amend the Constitution to restrict the freedom of expression guaranteed by the First Amendment.  

This is not an issue of National Security.  There has been no raging national debate on this issue since the early 1970’s.  Americans rarely burn the American Flag in protest any more…it simply doesn’t evoke the emotional response it used to, because we’ve matured enough since the Vietnam era to understand that burning one flag might offend a few people, but no harm is really done.  (To do any real harm by burning an American Flag, you’d have to burn them all.  Go ahead and try; we’re even bigger than that.)  Once such an amendment is in place, flag burning might come back into vogue, though – as a gesture of defiance.  Perhaps it’s just best to leave well enough alone.

The truth is that in the twenty-five years I’ve been participating in the debate about flag burning, I’ve heard dozens of arguments in support of the kind of ban now in front of the Senate, and every one was based on emotion.  I have never seen or heard any rational argument in favor of curtailing freedom of speech.

And that’s what bothers me about this.  We’re very nearly willing to give up our freedom to avoid offending anyone’s sensibilities.  I’m sorry, burning the flag bothers you?  Okay.  Sorry.  Can I have some of your bottled water to put this out with, please?  That twenty-nine foot tall cross on a privately-owned war memorial honoring Korean War veterans offends you because you’re an Atheist and the cross used to be on public lands?  Oh, gosh, let’s just tear it down for you at taxpayer expense.

Since we’re on the verge of relinquishing our hard-won freedoms to the forces of Political Correctness, I propose the following changes be made to our Bill of Rights (my text is in italics):

I
Congress shall make no law respecting or disrespecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof unless anyone’s delicate sensibilities are offended; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press except when the exercise of such free speech be considered vulgar or thought-provoking; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble without doing or saying anything meaningful, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances at taxpayer expense, no matter how frivolous.
II
A well regulated militia, once being considered necessary to the security of a free state, but not any more, the right of most of the people to keep and bear arms should be considered fair game, such decision being at least initially based upon the design of the arms in question, but the right of Dianne Feinstein to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.
IV
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, except when those papers and effects may be transmitted electronically, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

I could go on, but do you really want me to?

If this passes the Senate, Americans will spend the next seven years embroiled in a debate over whether or not to curtail our First Amendment rights.  It will become the hot topic of the 2006 and 2008 elections.  At a time when we should be setting the example for struggling new democracies such as the one in Iraq, we’ll be ripping ourselves to shreds re-deciding an issue so central to our national identity that our present enemies cite it as the prime reason that all Americans must die.

The reality is that the people who burn American Flags these days aren’t Americans, and none of our laws can touch them but the one we haven’t changed since 1791: “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.”

We need to leave that one alone, if for no other reason than it scares the shit out of al Qaeda.

* It happened today, Tuesday, June 27, 2006.  The amendment failed, 66-34.  Democracy WINS!!