Flag Burning

There are no words for my disgust right now.  Wait, here’s the same article but isn’t Fox news. I have to support anything that isn’t Fox. The entire purpose of the proposed amendment is to put people in jail who are expressing their opposition to the US government - and one of the best way to do can be to burn the flag. Basically, this law, or a similar law, would have peaceful demonstrators thrown in jail because someone doesn’t like the WAY that they peacefully protest. Other than the fact that the jails are already overcrowded with REAL criminals, this is completely unconstitutional to do so in a free country. In fact, it’s not the act of flag burning itself that raises ire - in fact, the only way to dispose of a flag is to burn it. No, the act isn’t wrong - it’s the motivation, the thoughts, the purpose. We don’t like what you are gonna say, so we ain’t gonna let you say it.

In 1989, the U.S. Supreme Court, in Texas v. Johnson, 491 U.S. 397 (1989) held that flag burning was "expressive conduct" protected by the First Amendment Bill of Rights and that the conduct itself did not constitute fighting words. Penned by Justice Brennan, who I believe to be a (lower case) god, "If there is a bedrock principle underlying the First Amendment, it is that the government may not prohibit the expression of an idea simply because society finds the idea itself offensive or disagreeable." Boo yah.

Now after Johnson, them smart Congress kin passed the Flag Protection Act that made flag burning a federal offense. The Supreme Court gave a big Fuck You to Congress in United States V. Eichman, 496 U.S. 310 (1990) and overturned the statute. (Despite this, lots of states still have it on their books.)  See here.

Anyway, after several attempts to pass throw laws in recent years, it comes up again, in an election year. How convenient. How political (say that last word with the appropriate disgust, the kind I usually save for the words "attorney" or "lawyer.")

Now I know that there are all sorts of silly people who think that because I support the right of individuals to burn the flag (or because I don’t support the war or Bush) that I am anti-American and should leave the country. Even some in my own family. Bite me. Being a liberal and questioning the government (read: not being brainwashed and not blindly accepting everything one is told) does not mean that one is inherently was not a patriot. Last time I checked, we were still a free country. We were still the country that was founded because they questioned the (English) government at that time and refused to accept for the sake of accepting, right? Besides, "the tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.")