HEY, USA

Senate Votes Down Flag Amendment.
You Can Leave Old Glory On Your Antenna

While the Senate debated an amendment to the Constitution that would ban its desecration, there you were, with your flag flying proudly on the tip of your antenna and becoming ever-more tattered. But now that the bill has been defeated, you can keep it on your car without a care.

Even government workers can breathe a sigh of relief. For instance, US postal workers won’t have to be concerned about whether or not they could go to jail for cancelling stamps that have the flag printed on them.

The proposed amendment was hatched by Senator Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, and read: "The Congress shall have power to prohibit the physical desecration of the flag of the United States."

The defeat confirmed Supreme Court rulings in 1989 and 1990 that burning and other desecrations of the flag are protected as free speech by the First Amendment to the Constitution.

Thus spoke the two sides:

Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn: "Countless men and women have died defending that flag. It is but a small humble act for us to defend it."

Senator Daniel Inouye, D-Hawaii (and a WW II vet who lost an arm in the war and was awarded the Medal of Honor): "Our country's unique because our dissidents have a voice. While I take offense at disrespect to the flag, I nonetheless believe it is my continued duty as a veteran, as an American citizen, and as a United States senator to defend the constitutional right of protesters to use the flag in nonviolent speech."

It seems to us that “countless men and women” died, not specifically to defend the flag, but what the flag represents, primarily freedom.

By the way, if demonstrators understood that tidy thought, they’d know they owe their right to demonstrate to what the flag represents, so, if logic had a voice in the din, the flag would be the last thing they’d want to burn.

But does logic rule the waves? Have we not in past issues advised that the more logical you are, the more an illogical world is bound to upset you, unless, as we also advised, you cultivate your serenity by maintaining your perspective.

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