Rally Around the Flag Amendment?
"The Congress shall have power to prohibit the physical desecration of the flag of the United States."
Proposed 28th Amendment to the US Constitution,
passed by the House of Representatives
If you made a list of major problems facing America today (record deficit, terrorism, Iraq, outsourcing of jobs, oil prices, health insurance, etc.) ranked in order of urgency, where would flag-desecration come in? On my list it is right after bears feasting on garbage in our national parks. But our representatives in Congress found the issue important enough to amend the Constitution, by a vote of 286-130 on June 22.(1) All Democrats from Wisconsin plus Republlican Tom Petri voted No, the other three Republicans (Ryan, Green and Sensenbrennner) voted Yes. (2)
Our Constitution has been amended only 27 times in the entire history of the document, and only 17 times in the last 200 years. Amendments after the Bill of Rights have abolished slavery, granted women the right to vote, limited presidential terms, and provided for direct election of US senators. The most recent amendment, passed in 1992, made pay raises voted by Congress effective after the next election.
In recent decades Democrats have tried and failed to add one new amendment to the Constitution: the Equal Rights Amendment. Meanwhile, Republicans have made serious efforts to pass four other amendments (Balanced Budget, School Prayer, Human Life, and Defense of Marriage ), of which President Bush is now pushing the Marriage Amendment. Republicans seem to have lost interest in the Balanced Budget Amendment, even though we need it now more than when first proposed in the 1970's.
In 1968 a federal law banned desecration of the flag, several of which had been burned in demonstrations against the Vietnam War. In 1989 the US Supreme Court ruled that the law was unconstitutional, since burning a flag is a form of symbolic political speech, and therefore protected by the First Amendment.
If the proposed 28th Amendment is passed by the Senate (by two-thirds majority) and ratified by three-quarters of the states, the flag-desecration law could be passed again and could not be overturned. With this Amendment, we could stop people from doing what nobody is doing anyway. Have you noticed the smoke of Old Glory-burnings in the air in the past 35 years? Do you feel better already?
Even without the proposed amendment and related legislation, it is already illegal to destroy a flag belonging to someone else, or to burn it in an area where open fires are prohibited. In my view, if someone wants to show his hatred or contempt for America by making or legally acquiring an American flag and desecrating it, the law should permit him to do so. Those who are offended by the sight can leave the scene or switch TV channels. If confronted by someone doing this, I would ask him, "Where else in the world can you express yourself this way? Is this freedom what you hate about this country?"
I am not against any amendment to the protect the honor of the flag; in fact I would back the following " Glazerbeam Amendment":
"All statements made by officers of the United States less than twenty feet from an American flag shall be considered to have been made under oath. Making false statements in the presence of the flag shall be punishable by impeachment and removal from office, prosecution for perjury, or both."
With the Glazerbeam Amendment in force, Americans could judge how much confidence future presidents place in their claims by estimating the distance to the nearest flag. Now that is an amendment we can all rally around!
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(1) Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, June 23, 2005
(2) Same paper, June 26, 2005.
Proposed 28th Amendment to the US Constitution,
passed by the House of Representatives
If you made a list of major problems facing America today (record deficit, terrorism, Iraq, outsourcing of jobs, oil prices, health insurance, etc.) ranked in order of urgency, where would flag-desecration come in? On my list it is right after bears feasting on garbage in our national parks. But our representatives in Congress found the issue important enough to amend the Constitution, by a vote of 286-130 on June 22.(1) All Democrats from Wisconsin plus Republlican Tom Petri voted No, the other three Republicans (Ryan, Green and Sensenbrennner) voted Yes. (2)
Our Constitution has been amended only 27 times in the entire history of the document, and only 17 times in the last 200 years. Amendments after the Bill of Rights have abolished slavery, granted women the right to vote, limited presidential terms, and provided for direct election of US senators. The most recent amendment, passed in 1992, made pay raises voted by Congress effective after the next election.
In recent decades Democrats have tried and failed to add one new amendment to the Constitution: the Equal Rights Amendment. Meanwhile, Republicans have made serious efforts to pass four other amendments (Balanced Budget, School Prayer, Human Life, and Defense of Marriage ), of which President Bush is now pushing the Marriage Amendment. Republicans seem to have lost interest in the Balanced Budget Amendment, even though we need it now more than when first proposed in the 1970's.
In 1968 a federal law banned desecration of the flag, several of which had been burned in demonstrations against the Vietnam War. In 1989 the US Supreme Court ruled that the law was unconstitutional, since burning a flag is a form of symbolic political speech, and therefore protected by the First Amendment.
If the proposed 28th Amendment is passed by the Senate (by two-thirds majority) and ratified by three-quarters of the states, the flag-desecration law could be passed again and could not be overturned. With this Amendment, we could stop people from doing what nobody is doing anyway. Have you noticed the smoke of Old Glory-burnings in the air in the past 35 years? Do you feel better already?
Even without the proposed amendment and related legislation, it is already illegal to destroy a flag belonging to someone else, or to burn it in an area where open fires are prohibited. In my view, if someone wants to show his hatred or contempt for America by making or legally acquiring an American flag and desecrating it, the law should permit him to do so. Those who are offended by the sight can leave the scene or switch TV channels. If confronted by someone doing this, I would ask him, "Where else in the world can you express yourself this way? Is this freedom what you hate about this country?"
I am not against any amendment to the protect the honor of the flag; in fact I would back the following " Glazerbeam Amendment":
"All statements made by officers of the United States less than twenty feet from an American flag shall be considered to have been made under oath. Making false statements in the presence of the flag shall be punishable by impeachment and removal from office, prosecution for perjury, or both."
With the Glazerbeam Amendment in force, Americans could judge how much confidence future presidents place in their claims by estimating the distance to the nearest flag. Now that is an amendment we can all rally around!
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(1) Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, June 23, 2005
(2) Same paper, June 26, 2005.
posted by Gerald S Glazer at 10:30 AM
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