FLAG AMENDMENT

Last Wednesday, members of the U.S. House of Representatives approved a proposed amendment which would allow Congress to make laws prohibiting the desecration of the national flag.

This isn’t the first time a proposed flag protection amendment has made it past the House, but it may be the last. In the 16 years since the Supreme Court ruled to protect flag desecration as free speech, every proposed amendment pointed at the matter has died on the Senate floor.

This year, however, the Republican-led initiative seems poised for success. With a 55-45 Republican majority in the Senate, the bill only needs about a dozen Democrats backing it to send it to the states for ratification.

It’s a tough amendment for a politician to oppose. The flag is the supreme symbol of the United States. Arguing against laws to protect it is like arguing against the United States itself, right? Why, it’s downright unpatriotic!

Or is it? Ask yourself a question.

With the cost of living rising, millions without adequate health care and an astonishingly expensive struggle with terrorism, why are our elected officials wasting so much time and money passing an amendment to ban desecration of the flag?

The measure is a ruse. An amendment looks good, looks like Congress is making change, enacting reform, but smoke and mirrors aside, a ban on flag desecration is anything but patriotic. Rather it’s congressmen, Republican and Democrat alike, using patriotism to distract us from the political quagmire they’ve dug themselves into. Ironically, they’re only digging themselves deeper.

If the amendment is passed, laws will have to be defined and enacted. Police officers will have to divert their attention and resources to the matter. Court systems will inevitably be tied up with high profile, drawn out hearings as protesters make martyrs of themselves.

What does all this add up to? Millions of taxpayer dollars thrown down the drain to enforce patriotism.

Few citizens realize that patriotism is a choice. The choice to honor the flag comes from the faith we, as patriots, have in what it represents. When the law tells us to respect the flag, it’s making that choice for us. Is compulsory patriotism really even patriotism at all?

Our stomachs turn when we see images of American flags burning at rallies. It is a repulsive act of anti-patriotism that spits on the legacy of our veterans. But at the same time, we must recognize that it’s just cloth burning, and that our money can be spent on better things than throwing an anti-patriot in jail.