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Free
speech must be protected in all forms Flag burning is patriotic. Yeah that’s right, I said it. In our recent rash of patriotism I have noticed talk of various “patriotic” laws has risen again. I believe the idea behind these laws is to solidify people’s beliefs in their nation by consolidating and protecting its symbols (or something). The word demagoguery doesn’t even do justice to issues like English as the national language (whatever that’s supposed to accomplish). The issue that particularly irks me is one that dies down and then springs to life like John Travolta’s career. I’m talking, of course, about a flag burning amendment. Now before everyone berates me as being an unpatriotic fallout from the hippie generation, let me explain. First off, I don’t understand why this becomes an issue. Unless there’s some large-scale epidemic of flag burning that I’m completely unaware of, this thing seems to come into focus every time Republicans scramble to divert attention from some bonehead bill they’ve managed to pass to drop the budget back into the red. Or in this most recent case, people are scrambling to protect what they see as essential symbols of America. It doesn’t make sense why the largest amount of support on this issue comes from the Republican camp. I could be completely wrong, but I thought the Republican party was supposed to want to protect the rights of individuals to do whatever they want, so long as it doesn’t adversely affect anyone else’s ability to enjoy their freedom and rights — because that’s really what we’re really talking about here. I fail to see any of the problems flag burning causes the American public. How are a group of protesters burning a flag stopping you from walking down the street, or eating corn flakes in the morning? It’s understandable that some people very passionately dislike it, but plenty of people also dislike handguns and there isn’t a big movement to abolish the Second Amendment. I understand it’s a symbol, but one of the things it is a symbol of is the fundamental freedom of expression. One of the major arguments we run into comes from people who say (with a large degree of confidence) that veterans didn’t go fight a war so they could come back here and watch someone burn the flag. But maybe that should be exactly why they fought a war. It is this freedom that is so ideologically essential to America. It is this kind of freedom that makes us so different, so special. The ability of a country’s citizens to burn its flag is so core to what makes the United States unique. Not all countries allow for such a wide range of personal freedoms. In fact there is no other country in the world as deft at establishing individual liberty while protecting the safety of the group. When I see a protester burning a flag I see someone disillusioned with government, yet fully believing in the principals that government stands for. You’ll have to forgive me if I reject the notion that the best way to protect free speech is to limit it. Tim Dragga is a junior political science major from Lubbock. Dragga’s column can be seen every Wednesday and he can be contacted at (t.c.dragga@student.tcu.edu). |
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