Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, January 27, 1992 TAG: 9201280173
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
IN LEGISLATURE
BAD IDEAS can be hard to down. Several veterans organizations are pushing for a resolution in this General Assembly to ask Congress for a constitutional amendment protecting the American flag from abuse.The American Legion says that all this proposed amendment would do "is isolate flag desecration as a shocking display of vulgarity and an abhorrent act against society like certain forms of slander, libel and obscenity."
To "isolate flag desecration" from other forms of expression is possible; words exist to describe the act. And yes, trashing the flag is both vulgar and abhorrent. But to start making exceptions to freedom of expression, as guaranteed in the First Amendment, is to head down a slippery slope.
Is flag abuse truly an intolerable act against a society that prizes personal freedom? Does flag abuse pose a threat to the republic or the rights and protections enshrined in our Constitution and traditions? Are the misguided few who burn or otherwise dishonor the symbol of our country so dangerous to the rest of us?
Or would a greater threat arise from tinkering and tampering with the First Amendment, from carving out the first constitutional exception ever made to this bulwark of democracy?
Those who fought under the flag are of course offended when it is abused. But the flag is not the nation; it is a symbol of all the nation stands for, and that includes the freedom to utter thoughts and make protests the rest of us may heartily despise.
In throwing out a state statute making it a crime to dishonor the flag, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals said: "Recognizing that the right to differ is the centerpiece of First Amendment freedoms, a government cannot mandate by fiat a feeling of unity. Therefore, [that government] cannot carve out a symbol of unity and prescribe a set of approved messages to be associated with that symbol."
Since that ruling more than two years ago, the flood of sentiment (and political demagoguery) for a constitutional amendment on flag abuse has crested and receded. Let's not roil those waters again.