
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, June 26, 1990                   TAG: 9006260421
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

AMENDMENT COULD HAVE BROADER USE

PREVENTING flag destruction, if enacted into a constitutional amendment,may actually have broader implications than intended. Supreme Court Justice William Brennan said that "interest lay not in the flag's physical protection but in its symbolic meaning . . . "

Then what is to stop a person from using this amendment to influence other issues not directly related to flag desecration? If a person wished to save a condemned building from being destroyed, he or she would merely have to affix a flag to the building. I believe a resourceful person could use a law like this to gain his own purpose.

I would never wish to burn or otherwise desecrate the American flag. But I contend that by debating this whole issue at length, politicians are taking advantage of loyal Americans' sense of patriotism at the expense of more relevant issues.

\ ANN B. ANDERSON\ CHRISTIANSBURG

by CNB