This is really happening? I swear I’m living in bizarro world. We have so many important things to worry about and now we’re going to criminalize an expression of free speech. Amazing.
I didn’t join the Army to defend a piece of cloth; I joined the Army to defend what that piece of cloth represents. And what it represents is individual freedom, including freedom of speech — which includes moronic things like burning flags.
When protesters burn American flags — something that, by the way, happens exceedingly rarely in this country — they mostly demonstrate what idiots they are. But they also demonstrate the fundamental vitality of this country. In this country you can burn the flag and nobody will arrest you; that stark fact is part of what makes America a great nation.
Some people want to change that. They want to stomp all over the meaning of the flag in order to protect the physical structure of the flag. Which just makes the flag more worthy of burning, not less.
And by the way, if burning a flag is illegal, then this should ABSOLUTELY be illegal too.