Burning Old Glory

I've been trying to find the words to describe how I feel about the U.S. House of Representatives passing a constitutional amendment to criminalize flag burning.

I guess the most direct way to say it is tht I'm against both -flag burning and the amendment against it. There are few things in this world that will get my blood instantaneously boiling. Anyone not treating my dear wife with anything other than love and respect, anyone but me picking on my children, and seeing a bunch of pigheaded yokels burning an American flag. I guess I'm a traditionalist. I think the flag should be respected. Granted there are a lot of people out there that have no respect for the United States. But I'm not one of them. There are a lot of nitwits out there that truly hate the United States and every thing we believe in. They choose to demonstrate this hatred by burning our flag.

So if I hate seeing the flag burned so much then why would I object to a law protecting it? When you get right down to it what are these people burning. They are not burning the United States. They are burning a piece of red white and blue cloth. These protestors could stand on the White House lawn and burn flags until the ashes blocked the president's view out the second story window and it will not change any of the liberties and freedoms the citizens of the United States enjoy.

So go ahead and burn my flag it's just cloth and dye. The ideals it stands for will never burn.

Mark Steyn a columnist for the Chicago Sun Times made some very good points.

"...if someone wishes to burn a flag, he should be free to do so. In the same way, if Democrat senators want to make speeches comparing the U.S. military to Nazis and the Khmer Rouge, they should be free to do so. It's always useful to know what people really believe."

He also had this to say:

"A flag has to be worth torching. When a flag gets burned, that's not a sign of its weakness but of its strength. If you can't stand the heat of your burning flag, get out of the superpower business. It's the left that believes the state can regulate everyone into thought-compliance. The right should understand that the battle of ideas is won out in the open."

So lets nip this flag burning amendment in the bud before it goes to far. We're big enough boys that a little burning cloth doesn't scare us. Besides the enemy is much easier to keep track of if he has ashes on his fingers.