Word: flagging
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...most familiar organized debate topics is "Should Congress have the power to outlaw physical desecration of the flag?" It was the first question I debated in sixth grade, and remains a presence in almost every tournament at the high school and college level. However, unlike abortion and marijuana legalization, which still provoke heated discussion, the omnipresence of the flag desecration topic provokes stupefied boredom. So I'm assuming most Harvard students, like me, cringe just a little when flag desecration becomes an issue again. This time, however, the chance that it might actually have some real application to our lives...
Debate class has become dangerously close to reality. The House has always had well over the two-thirds majority required to ratify an amendment reading "The Congress shall have the power to prohibit the physical desecration of the flag of the United States," which was passed by the Senate judicial committee last Wednesday. The Senate was three votes short of a two-thirds majority last time the topic came around, but now the Senate may achieve the number required for passage due to the retirement of one die-hard opponent and waffling by some who voted against it the last...
...possibility verges on the extraordinary because only 27 out 10,000 proposed constitutional amendments have ever been ratified. One might think that with the seriousness with which we treat the topic there are tens of thousands of extremist militia or political groups who go out each night and have flag-burning events. Not exactly. The number of actual incidents involving a physical desecration of the flag is paltry, and of so little interest to the public that the media does not publicize such occurrences...
Another part of what makes the whole topic seem so ridiculous and blown out of proportion is the commercialization of the flag. We Americans wear boxers covered with little American flags. Is that more or less of a desecration than burning the flag in front of the White House, which at least has a political motivation? Is the American spirit trivialized by those little toothpicks with American flags on them, that people use to serve hors d'oevres? One could make a case that both of these uses are offensive, and one could also argue that our country was founded...
Three weeks ago, at the Ivy League championships, it began to flag, and none of the golfers qualified for the NCAA tournament. These last two matches, cramped into one four-day block, were the last in this saga of trial...