Flag-burning amendment erodes your rights

[struggle4progress]

GLENDA HOLSTE


"We do not consecrate the flag by punishing its desecration, for in doing so we dilute the freedom that this cherished emblem represents."

If the heat of summer is upon the nation and Congress is stalling out on substantive business, it must be time to instigate a skirmish in the culture wars. Resurrecting a flag-burning amendment represents a surefire winner in the battles of political symbolism, so the majority in your House of Representatives has, for the sixth time since 1995, enacted its version of a constitutional amendment that bans burning the American flag.

The trouble with the House this time is not just that it's wasting efforts and doesn't choose to embrace the rights guaranteed in the First Amendment, the trouble is this bit of demagoguery could at long last win approval in the U.S. Senate and make its way through the states in search of 38 that will ratify an amendment that says: "The Congress shall have power to prohibit the physical desecration of the flag of the United States." <snip>

Maybe that's part of the political point, diverting our attention. If we are tussling over who's the best patriot, maybe we aren't watching our liberties fade like a cotton flag left out in the rain.

http://www.twincities.com/mld/twincities/news/editorial/11969581.htm