Hooray For The Flag… Boo For The Flag Protection Amendment!
The recent defeat of the Flag Protection Amendment by the narrowest possible margin is a God-send for all Americans. While we should be proud of our Flag as a symbol of our nation, history and the principles of freedom, liberty and justice, we cannot allow our pride to interfere with the very principles for which the Flag stands.
One of the most cherished and necessary principles of our nation is the freedom to express our disgust, distrust, anger and political outrage to our politicians, leaders and fellow citizens. While most of us would choose not to disgrace our flag as a means of expressing such things, we must allow such expression as a matter of constitutional principle and basic freedom… no matter how despicable and disgusting such a protest might seem to us. The principle of allowing such a display goes back to our own history.
During the pre-Revolutionary stages of our nation, many times symbols of the British regime, British forces and British monarch were burned or defaced in effigy as a means of demonstrating the anger and outrage at the oppression and intolerable acts against colonists. Indeed, these very symbols were used as means to enforce the will of a British monarch, British Parliament and British governance upon our forefathers. The Boston Tea Party was an effective protest because each crate of tea tossed into Boston Harbor bore the royal crest and tax seal of King George III. Tossing these crates into the sea was by its very nature a defacing of the royal symbol and the seal of the British nation. The offense that the Boston patriots committed was two-fold: first, destroying goods belonging to the British government without paying the assessed tax, and second, destroying the symbol of the British Empire. The sedition that the Tea Party represented was not an outrageous economic or realistic political blow to the British government or its officers. Indeed, the blow that occurred was symbolic in nature.
So, too, was the symbol of the Liberty Tree a seditious act according to the British powers. The patriots of the day would remove all of the leaves and minor branches of a large tree, leaving only a bare shell of a tree for public display. The British authorities were offended because the creation of a Liberty Tree was a symbolic display that was used to rally and motivate citizens to see the political realities and hardships that the British regime was placing upon colonists. Those that dared to create such a public display, as well as those that dares to deface the royal crest, royal seal, tax stamps or other representations of the British regime, Parliament or the monarch were deemed seditious, morally bankrupt and a danger to the state. The penalty for anyone caught doing any of these acts was death.
Even during our Revolutionary War, symbols were used to convey political messages and express political ideas. Flags of all types and banners of all makes were used as rallying cries and motivational symbols of our fight for justice, liberty, freedom and reasoned courses of action.
As a veteran of two branches of the US military, I take great pride in our nation and the flag that represents it. I have distributed educational materials on how to treat our flag with the respect that it is due in the normal course of events. I have stood proudly at attention, saluting the flag while in uniform, in attendance at various events and during political actions. But our flag is not only a symbol of inspiration and pride in our nation, but it is a symbol and representation of our principles of justice, liberty and proper governance. In times of trouble we are taught to “desecrate” our flag by displaying it upside down to call the attention of our fellow citizens to the distress that we might find ourselves experiencing. While we may find desecration of the Flag a disgusting manner in which to express political views, we must allow such exceptions to occur unchecked as a matter of principle… principle that the very symbol represents. If we must allow members of the KKK to walk down the streets of Skokie in offense to all the Jews, Holocaust survivors and reasonable citizens (c.a. 1980s), we must also allow the desecration of our sacred symbol(s) to maintain our liberty.
Being an American is not easy. We must stand by and allow those that would express outrageous and offensive ideas to do so in order to preserve our principles set forth by our framers in the Constitution. We must allow even the most fringe elements of our society to express their ideas—no matter how unreasoned, offensive or unsound—so that our reasoned majority can openly reject these ideas. Not doing so creates a greater spectacle, a greater scandal and undermines everything we stand for in the process. Passing a flag protection amendment to our Constitution would be inherently repugnant not only to the First Amendment and the principles laid out in that part of our greatest governmental document, but also the principles delineated in the Preamble and throughout the Constitution. We, as Americans and patriots, must allow all forms of protest, representation of views and let the reasoned minds of American citizens reject notions and actions that are unreasonable, inherently offensive and/or asinine.
The fire that burns in our heart as Americans is not diminished by the desecration of our Flag. Indeed, I would argue that such a display only hardens the heart of true patriots and reinforces the values and principles that we have chosen to put forth in what George Washington called “The Great Experiment.” We will do more toward garnishing respectful treatment of our Flag by living up to the values, principles and ideals represented in that banner than by trying to protect it from desecration. We need to reinstate flag etiquette into our school curriculum as part of our Civics, Government and History courses. We need to demonstrate our reverence for our flag by educating folks as to how the Flag should be handled and displayed. We need to be bold in our expression of disgust for those that mistreat, deface or desecrate the Flag, but we cannot allow a constitutional amendment to be the means by which we change outrageous and unacceptable behaviors. It has not proven an effective tool for doing so in the past, and will not be effective as we move along in history.
One of the most cherished and necessary principles of our nation is the freedom to express our disgust, distrust, anger and political outrage to our politicians, leaders and fellow citizens. While most of us would choose not to disgrace our flag as a means of expressing such things, we must allow such expression as a matter of constitutional principle and basic freedom… no matter how despicable and disgusting such a protest might seem to us. The principle of allowing such a display goes back to our own history.
During the pre-Revolutionary stages of our nation, many times symbols of the British regime, British forces and British monarch were burned or defaced in effigy as a means of demonstrating the anger and outrage at the oppression and intolerable acts against colonists. Indeed, these very symbols were used as means to enforce the will of a British monarch, British Parliament and British governance upon our forefathers. The Boston Tea Party was an effective protest because each crate of tea tossed into Boston Harbor bore the royal crest and tax seal of King George III. Tossing these crates into the sea was by its very nature a defacing of the royal symbol and the seal of the British nation. The offense that the Boston patriots committed was two-fold: first, destroying goods belonging to the British government without paying the assessed tax, and second, destroying the symbol of the British Empire. The sedition that the Tea Party represented was not an outrageous economic or realistic political blow to the British government or its officers. Indeed, the blow that occurred was symbolic in nature.
So, too, was the symbol of the Liberty Tree a seditious act according to the British powers. The patriots of the day would remove all of the leaves and minor branches of a large tree, leaving only a bare shell of a tree for public display. The British authorities were offended because the creation of a Liberty Tree was a symbolic display that was used to rally and motivate citizens to see the political realities and hardships that the British regime was placing upon colonists. Those that dared to create such a public display, as well as those that dares to deface the royal crest, royal seal, tax stamps or other representations of the British regime, Parliament or the monarch were deemed seditious, morally bankrupt and a danger to the state. The penalty for anyone caught doing any of these acts was death.
Even during our Revolutionary War, symbols were used to convey political messages and express political ideas. Flags of all types and banners of all makes were used as rallying cries and motivational symbols of our fight for justice, liberty, freedom and reasoned courses of action.
As a veteran of two branches of the US military, I take great pride in our nation and the flag that represents it. I have distributed educational materials on how to treat our flag with the respect that it is due in the normal course of events. I have stood proudly at attention, saluting the flag while in uniform, in attendance at various events and during political actions. But our flag is not only a symbol of inspiration and pride in our nation, but it is a symbol and representation of our principles of justice, liberty and proper governance. In times of trouble we are taught to “desecrate” our flag by displaying it upside down to call the attention of our fellow citizens to the distress that we might find ourselves experiencing. While we may find desecration of the Flag a disgusting manner in which to express political views, we must allow such exceptions to occur unchecked as a matter of principle… principle that the very symbol represents. If we must allow members of the KKK to walk down the streets of Skokie in offense to all the Jews, Holocaust survivors and reasonable citizens (c.a. 1980s), we must also allow the desecration of our sacred symbol(s) to maintain our liberty.
Being an American is not easy. We must stand by and allow those that would express outrageous and offensive ideas to do so in order to preserve our principles set forth by our framers in the Constitution. We must allow even the most fringe elements of our society to express their ideas—no matter how unreasoned, offensive or unsound—so that our reasoned majority can openly reject these ideas. Not doing so creates a greater spectacle, a greater scandal and undermines everything we stand for in the process. Passing a flag protection amendment to our Constitution would be inherently repugnant not only to the First Amendment and the principles laid out in that part of our greatest governmental document, but also the principles delineated in the Preamble and throughout the Constitution. We, as Americans and patriots, must allow all forms of protest, representation of views and let the reasoned minds of American citizens reject notions and actions that are unreasonable, inherently offensive and/or asinine.
The fire that burns in our heart as Americans is not diminished by the desecration of our Flag. Indeed, I would argue that such a display only hardens the heart of true patriots and reinforces the values and principles that we have chosen to put forth in what George Washington called “The Great Experiment.” We will do more toward garnishing respectful treatment of our Flag by living up to the values, principles and ideals represented in that banner than by trying to protect it from desecration. We need to reinstate flag etiquette into our school curriculum as part of our Civics, Government and History courses. We need to demonstrate our reverence for our flag by educating folks as to how the Flag should be handled and displayed. We need to be bold in our expression of disgust for those that mistreat, deface or desecrate the Flag, but we cannot allow a constitutional amendment to be the means by which we change outrageous and unacceptable behaviors. It has not proven an effective tool for doing so in the past, and will not be effective as we move along in history.
posted by Jim Downey at 7:10 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home