Word: flagging
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...weary patriot may begin to wonder whether a flag-burning amendment is worth the trouble. After all, thousands of flags fly unmolested every day, even without the protection of law. But on this point we have the testimony of the amendment's chief advocate, American Legion Commander William Detweiler: "If burning the flag is wrong, it is wrong no matter how many times it occurs. In fact, we contend it is a problem even if no one ever burns another flag...
...problems with "flag" are nothing compared with the problems in defining what exactly is to be prohibited. Perhaps out of a desire not to unfairly single out arsonists--who, like polluters and toxic-waste dumpers, are no doubt represented by a powerful, well-funded lobby--the proposed Amendment says, "The Congress and the States shall have power to prohibit the physical desecration of the flag of the United States." But Representative Jerrold Nadler, a New York Democrat, objected that desecration has religious overtones. Someone may think Congress was trying to sneak by the First amendment and establish a religion...
...solution, advocated by Canady, is to let the states define flag and desecration. But this leads to the problem foreseen by Reed: that a man innocently wearing flag-motif briefs may cross a state line only to find himself hoisted up the nearest flagpole and saluted by troops of Boy Scouts. Furthermore, with the rapid devolution of powers from the Federal Government to the states, a state may be tempted to define "the flag" as its own state flag. Since hardly anyone knows what the state flags look like, we would live in constant fear of desecrating one that resembles...
...might have put it to soothe the civil libertarians: An anti-flag-burning amendment is not a problem precisely because no one is much tempted to burn flags. A prohibition on flag burning should rest as lightly on the land as, say, a law forbidding the eating of caterpillars with cream cheese. Representative Nadler's worries about the separation of church and state can similarly be put to rest. It would be one thing if Congress were trying to establish a genuine religion, requiring, for example, that one pray to the President or the Speaker of the House...
There is only one thing, in the end, that ought to worry us. Its proponents say the anti-flag-burning amendment is necessary in order to get us to respect the flag. But our culture is in truly bad shape if we have come to define respecting something as the failure to set it on fire. True, torching something is often a clear sign of disrespect, but the converse does not hold. As they proceed with their weighty deliberations, our Congress members should realize that just because someone does not douse them in kerosene and hold a match to their...