galenrox said:I completely agree, 100%. I believe full heartedly that the flag represents what America is supposed to be, and what people have fought and died for to give it the potential to be, not what it currently is. I never have and never will burn a flag, because I would view that as more of a **** you to the ideal than to the actual government.
But that's our interpretation, not everyone's, and the ability to freely express yourself should not ever be abridged. If we abridge the right to protest, then it's no longer a "sure this is no big deal, but what's next", slippery slope sort of problem, it's THE problem. The government works for us, and can you imagine having an employee that set up a system where you could not tell him your opinion on how well he's doing his job?
HTColeman said:I wouldn't burn the flag because it is a slap in the face and a bit extreme. But if you take away the right to burn the flag on the basis of what it stands for, you would be in fact going against what it stands for.
No, we still have laws based on respect. You cannot legally use vulgarity in public places, though it is not often enforced. You cannot wander the streets naked. You cannot protest or picket without authorization, and when you do, you cannot block access to those businesses. I find disrespecting the Flag extremely offensive. It symbolizes the lives that were given to give you freedom. With that freedom comes a responsibility to respect and honor those that fought and died for you. If a person does not have the capacity or desire to respect that, we should enact laws to protect the Flag.
Datamonkee said:HTColeman said:I wouldn't burn the flag because it is a slap in the face and a bit extreme. But if you take away the right to burn the flag on the basis of what it stands for, you would be in fact going against what it stands for.
No, we still have laws based on respect. You cannot legally use vulgarity in public places, though it is not often enforced. You cannot wander the streets naked. You cannot protest or picket without authorization, and when you do, you cannot block access to those businesses. I find disrespecting the Flag extremely offensive. It symbolizes the lives that were given to give you freedom. With that freedom comes a responsibility to respect and honor those that fought and died for you. If a person does not have the capacity or desire to respect that, we should enact laws to protect the Flag.
But those are not Constitional laws, those are state laws, which are quite different. To add an amendment to burn the flag would be to condradict the 1st amendment of freedom of speech. You can't have a contradicting Constitution.
HTColeman said:Datamonkee said:But those are not Constitional laws, those are state laws, which are quite different. To add an amendment to burn the flag would be to condradict the 1st amendment of freedom of speech. You can't have a contradicting Constitution.
That is one of the most misused Amendments in the entire Constitution. There is no freedom of speech. You still cannot print whatever you want to, wherever you want to. You still cannot paint pictures of whatever you want to, wherever you want to. You cannot talk of bombing or hijacking planes in an airport. You cannot use racist slurs. Those are state laws that have given guidelines to the Constitution. You have the right to bare arms, but you cannot purchase grenades, automatic weapons, tank shells, or missiles legally.
There should be something that protects the Flag from people that are too ignorant or crass to realize it's meaning.
Datamonkee said:You cannot use racist slurs.
Datamonkee said:Those are state laws that have given guidelines to the Constitution.
Datamonkee said:You have the right to bare arms, but you cannot purchase grenades, automatic weapons, tank shells, or missiles legally.
JOHNYJ said:! The people who have fought and died to create ,the United States of America
chinese-school.netfirms.com/other-article-flags.html said:Today, every country in the world has a flag. As governments change, so do their flags.
Datamonkee said:You cannot legally buy those armaments.
Datamonkee said:You cannot legally use racial slurs, they are considered verbal assault.
Datamonkee said:I don't feel that those laws are wrong, my point is that there are several things that are protected because they are dangerous or offensive to the majority of people. The First Amendment is abused. I guarantee that when it was written, our forefathers had no idea that it would be used to denigrate the very symbols of our country.
tanenger said:After the past four and a half years, it should be painfully obvious that out constitution is little more that a statement of wishful thinking.
A person or group with enough backing can modify, change, or declare obsolete any provision of the document they are opposed to. The current administration is doing exactly that; just as they have in regard to world laws. All they need to do is to declare any decisions a matter of security and they don't even have to explain it to the citizenry. This administration has even gone so far as to defy the courts on these matters.
My concern for the country-not the people- they can eat cake for all I care- is that
the natural enviornment is about to be destroyed. And this bunch has built up enough power that they can and will put whomever they want in the office in 2008 to propetuate the disaster.
JOHNYJ said:To most Americans the Flag represents the Nation ! it only represents the govt. in a secondary sense.
To most Americans the Stars & Stripes Represents America ! The people who have fought and died to create ,the United States of America !
Liberals are the only people who emphasize its representing the govt.. Usualy so they can insult it.
That is one reason they just do not understand why many people want to make burning it a crime.
When you burn a flag you are insulting the Nation,all its people and all the people that died to make it a nation.
Alastor said:Here's my list:
The Declaration of Independence
The Constitution of the United States of America
The Bill of Rights
The Federalist Papers
And that's... about it. And I'm not even opposed to copies of those documents being burned. The originals have historical value, so I'd hate to see something happen to those... but the world would go on.
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