Sparking protest
GOP heats up blind patriotism with flag-burning amendment

The U.S. Constitution was designed as a concrete basis to guide future legislators. For more than 200 years it stood as such with only 16 amendments, besides the Bill of Rights, made hroughout those years.

In fewer than 100 days since they took office, Republicans have voted through a bill that would infringe upon Fourth Amendment rights and tried to force through amendments on both a balanced budget and term limits.

Now the GOP has begun an assault on First Amendment rights by initiating an amendment that would ban flag burning, a protected form of free speech as defined by the Supreme Court of the United States.

The amendment must be voted down just as the last flag-burning amendment was voted down in 1990, and the Republican assault on the Constitution must stop.

Proponents of the amendment to ban flag burning argue that the flag is a symbol of freedom that people have fought and died for.

That, however, is exactly the point.

The flag is a symbol. Old Glory waving above foreign territory, through a battle or above the White House is an image engrained in the memories of most Americans.

It is also an image that can never be taken away from an individual, whether or not a piece of multi-colored cloth is burned.

The "flag" that we can buy from any store is itself simply a representation of the Flag that symbolizes freedom and justice. As long as people believe in the United States, the Flag will last --no matter how many flags are burned.

And, yes, it is true that soldiers have fought and died for the Flag and for freedom. But, the very freedom they were fighting for was the the ideal that many Americans cherish most -- the freedom to protest against an overbearing and tyrannical government. And proponents of that measure would be hard pressed to prove that flag burning is not a viable form of protest.

In addition, Americans need to realize that the flag does have the same meaning for everyone. Many citizens patriotically proclaim that the flag represents their quest for the American dream. But, they are forgetting those Americans whose dreams have been ruined. In a country where 40 million people cannot afford health care and millions more do not have a warm place to sleep, how can any lawmaker, who pulls in six figures a year and has a cushy Capitol office expect every American to share his or her patriotic values?

Although the American flag is supposed to represent a non-oppressive government, a measure forbidding the burning of the flag is bordering on the tyranny that this country's forefathers hoped to prevent.