American Falg Burning

American Flag Burning

How big of a problem is flag burning such that a Constitutional

amendment is required to prohibit it? Given how strong people's emotions seem

to run when this issue comes up, you might think that this is one of the most

pressing matters facing America. The truth, though, is that bans on flag burning

and desecration are a solution in search of a problem: flag burning almost never

occurs, and when it does, the only harm it causes is to the sensibilities of the

very few people who see it. And what happens when someone witnesses a flag

being burned or desecrated in public? Is their pocket picked? Does it break their

leg? In fact, they experience no loss of property and no physical injury

whatsoever. All that happens to them is that they are offended--perhaps

extremely and deeply offended, but only offended nonetheless. Others are also

extremely and deeply offended when they see Nazis marching, when they see

gay pride parades (or just gays walking hand-in-hand), when they see interracial

couples, when they see the confederate flag flying, and so forth.

Attempts to ban flag desecration, either through statute or through

constitutional amendment, would ban much more than most people seem to

realize. Usually people only think about trying to stop burning the American flag,

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but the truth is that past and current laws against flag desecration cover far more

than just burning the flag. Perhaps if people thought more about just what they

are outlawing, they would not be so quick to support flag desecration bans.

Within months of the Texas v. Johnson decision that burning an American

flag is a constitutionally protected expression, Congress passed the Flag

Protection Act, legislatively challenging the Court's ruling and prohibiting the

desecration of American flags. For the second time in two years, the Supreme

Court was faced with the question of whether the government could ban flag

burning. According to the Flag Protection Act:

Whoever knowingly mutilates, defaces, physically defiles, burns, maintains on the floor or ground, or tramples upon any flag of the United States shall be fined under this title or imprisoned for not more than one year, or both. This subsection does not prohibit any conduct consisting of the disposal of the flag when it has become worn or soiled.

The government argued that the Flag Protection Act was directed against

all forms of flag mistreatment irrespective of the message being conveyed and

thus bypassed Texas v. Johnson.

One vitally important issue in the debate over burning and desecrating the

American flag tends to be ignored: what exactly does the American flag mean

and why? The American flag is a symbol, which is to say that it represents

America itself. Therefore, the question of what the American flag means is

necessarily a question about what America means and what it stands for.

This is not a peripheral matter but instead brings together just every other

aspect of the political, legal, and social debate. When self-proclaimed

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"defenders" of the flag talk about their attempts to prohibit the physical

desecration of the American flag, they typically make reference to the idea that

that the flag is a symbol of national unity, freedom, or patriotism, and therefore

that the government has an obligation to protect it.

The ironic truth is that the very act of burning the American flag is itself a

statement about what the flag means and what America stands for. Although

protesters who burn the flag certainly undermine traditional concepts of national

unity or patriotism, is that what they are really attacking? Not necessarily.

Typically, flag burners believe very fervently in freedom and liberty, and in

fact are charging the nation with "betraying its ideals" as the burners understand

them. To the protesters, the flag has come to represent what the nation has done

wrong and how it has become hypocritical. By burning it, they may be attempting

to burn away the nation's sins and call attention to changes which they think

must be made, or they may be simply trying to highlight all the negative things

which have collected on the flag and on America.

Whatever their intent, their actions are inextricably tied to what they

perceive the flag to mean and what they perceive America as standing for--for