THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, September 25, 1994 TAG: 9409230235
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 07 EDITION: FINAL
COLUMN: On The Street
SOURCE: Bill Reed
LENGTH: Medium: 67 lines
Give a politician enough time and he or she shall surely grow long furry ears and bray.
Take for instance the orgy of patriotic blather that drenched the Tuesday City Council meeting over flag burning.
Never mind that the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that torching Old Glory was protected by the First Amendment right to free speech.
No, we were treated to a lengthy series of apple pie and motherhood speeches from the council table about ``what the flag means to me.''
The issue came before the council at the request of the Citizens Flag Alliance of Virginia, an American Legion affiliate that is lobbying Congress to amend the Constitution to prohibit flag burning.
You could almost hear the band strike up ``Yankee Doodle Dandy'' as council members waded into the pros and cons.
Mayor Meyera Oberndorf, a proponent of the ban, said her opinion was forged by her immigrant grandparents, whose move to this country may have saved her from becoming a Nazi Holocaust victim during World War II.
Councilman John D. Moss cited the 1990 Supreme Court decision on the issue, as well as a speech by Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., upholding First Amendment rights against assaults by majority public opinion.
Councilman Robert K. Dean added that he viewed the flag the way he views his Bible. If his Bible were burned, he said, he would carry its spiritual message with him, adding: ``I don't have to have symbols.''
Apple pie and motherhood won out on a 6-5 vote, with the grand old banner waving. Congress no doubt will take notice and act.
Another instance of hot air overriding substance arose Tuesday when council members weighed in with arguments on whether or not informal council briefings should be televised on the city's public access TV cameras once the sessions are moved to a back room at City Hall.
These meetings now are held in open council chambers before regularly scheduled meetings and are televised.
A few overly shy council members say they are intimidated by the cameras. The very thought of all those unseen people watching them grope their way through discussions on municipal budgets, road projects, drainage and redistricting plans absolutely gives them goose pimples.
Others - obviously the more macho types - relish that big video eye, because it gives them an electronic stage on which to caper and cavort.
They can harrumph their way through important issues, make city administrators jump through hoops and generally throw their weight around like schoolyard bullies.
Still others use the old ``it's much too expensive to put TV cameras in the back room'' stall to avoid live broadcasting the informal briefings to the public at large.
It is a good bet that most Virginia Beach residents would prefer a televised briefing - no matter how long and boring - to one that is not. Better that they have the opportunity to tune in to find out what is going on, than wake up one morning with a little surprise in their tax bills, a service station going up next door or a super highway zooming through their living rooms.
It can and has happened before, right here in the good old USA.
Former State Senator Henry E. Howell, D-Norfolk, had a down-country way of describing the workings of not-so-open government.
``There's a lot more going around in the dark than Santa Claus,'' he would say. by CNB