American Falg Burning
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American Flag Burning
How big of a problem is flag burning such that a Constitutional
amendment is required to prohibit it? Given how strong peoples emotions seem
to run when this issue comes up, you might think that this is one of the most
pressing matters facing America. The truth, though, is that bans on flag burning
and desecration are a solution in search of a problem: flag burning almost never
occurs, and when it does, the only harm it causes is to the sensibilities of the
very few people who see it. And what happens when someone witnesses a flag
being burned or desecrated in public? Is their pocket picked? Does it break their
leg? In fact, they experience no loss of property and no physical injury
whatsoever. All that happens to them is that they are offended–perhaps
extremely and deeply offended, but only offended nonetheless. Others are also
extremely and deeply offended when they see Nazis marching, when they see
gay pride parades (or just gays walking hand-in-hand), when they see interracial
couples, when they see the confederate flag flying, and so forth.
Attempts to ban flag desecration, either through statute or through
constitutional amendment, would ban much more than most people seem to
realize. Usually people only think about trying to stop burning the American flag,
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but the truth is that past and current laws against flag desecration cover far more
than just burning the flag. Perhaps if people thought more about just what they
are outlawing, they would not be so quick to support flag desecration bans.
Within months of the Texas v. Johnson decision that burning an American
flag is a constitutionally protected expression, Congress passed the Flag
Protection Act, legislatively challenging the Courts ruling and prohibiting the
desecration of American flags. For the second time in two years, the Supreme
Court was faced with the question of whether the government could ban flag
burning. According to the Flag Protection Act:
Whoever knowingly mutilates, defaces, physically defiles, burns, maintains on the floor or ground, or tramples upon any flag of the United States shall be fined under this title or imprisoned for not more than one year, or both. This subsection does not prohibit any conduct consisting of the disposal of the flag when it has become worn or soiled.
The government argued that the Flag Protection Act was directed against
all forms of flag mistreatment irrespective of the message being conveyed and
thus bypassed Texas v. Johnson.
One vitally important issue in the debate over burning and desecrating the
American flag tends to be ignored: what exactly does the American flag mean
and why? The American flag is a symbol, which is to say that it represents
America itself. Therefore, the question of what the American flag means is
necessarily a question about what America means and what it stands for.
This is not a peripheral matter but instead brings together just every other
aspect of the political, legal, and social debate. When self-proclaimed
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“defenders” of the flag talk about their attempts to prohibit the physical
desecration of the American flag, they typically make reference to the idea that
that the flag is a symbol of national unity, freedom, or patriotism, and therefore
that the government has an obligation to protect it.
The ironic truth is that the very act of burning the American flag is itself a
statement about what the flag means and what America stands for. Although
protesters who burn the flag certainly undermine traditional concepts of national
unity or patriotism, is that what they are really attacking? Not necessarily.
Typically, flag burners believe very fervently in freedom and liberty, and in
fact are charging the nation with “betraying its ideals” as the burners understand
them. To the protesters, the flag has come to represent what the nation has done
wrong and how it has become hypocritical. By burning it, they may be attempting
to burn away the nations sins and call attention to changes which they think
must be made, or they may be simply trying to highlight all the negative things
which have collected on the flag and on America.
Whatever their intent, their actions are inextricably tied to what they
perceive the flag to mean and what they perceive America as standing for–for