Burn The Flag Essay, Research Paper
Our right to protest can be conducted in many methods. By speech,
by petition, by billboards, by sending letters, by holding up signs
and walking around in circles, by televising concerns, by going on
talk shows, radio shows, and even by burning the American Flag.
Flag burning is only one of the many methods of negative
expression. Today we debate over the American Flag, what does it
stand for and what is it s value. First of all, what is a flag? A flag is
a fabric used for symbolic purposes. The American Flag may mean a
whole lot for some people, but to others the American Flag is only a
symbol, identification, fabric. Under the Constitution, the right
exists for the owner of a symbol to destroy it using any method
desired, whether the gesture be for political reasons, or to meet
religious or humorous objectives, or to cast a fiery dagger into
someone s heartfelt beliefs. Any and all flags are just symbols.
Nothing more. A flag can mean a lot to one person and at the same
time can be despised by another. It can be legally hated or dearly
loved. It can be converted into a pride- shirt, skirt, or bikini, it can
be used on a fender of a car, or spit upon all without violating the
Constitution. Why? Because flags themselves are nothing more than
personally owned things – symbolic things. In a free country, things
can be legally destroyed at the will of the owner. Dissenters who
burn flags, and rant and rave anti-American slogans on street
corners, are still Americans. They are Americans possessing and
practicing their freedom to express themselves even though their
methods of protest may be far different from those of others, their
ideas may be serious. Nevertheless, outlawing flag burning with
only increase its symbolic value, as a result there will be more flag
burning. If you people think that flag burning degrades our
government, our nation, ourselves, think of outlawing spitting on
our grounds, cause that surely shows disrespect to our land, our
nation, our government, ourselves. The flag is a symbol of freedom,
a symbol. The red bars are tributes to the blood shed by the
colonists who revolted against tyrannical oppression, including
censorship and the inability to protest against government policies.
Flag burning destroy the flag, but if make an amendment to protect
it, you destroy what is stands for.