It’s been said that the definition of insanity is trying the same thing over and over while expecting a different result. While this definition may fail when experiencing computer problems with Windows, it certainly should hold up on matters of outlawing flag desecration.
A constitutional amendment to ban desecration of the U.S. flag moved closer to reality Wednesday when the House of Representatives passed it 286-130.
It was the seventh time the House has approved an amendment since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned a Texas law in 1989 and the next year ruled the federal Flag Protection Act unconstitutional. Although the bill has been endorsed by all 50 states, it has failed four times to get out of the Senate.
Those on both sides of the issue say this may be the year. Vote counts by the Citizens Flag Alliance, which supports the amendment, and the American Civil Liberties Union, which opposes it, show the Senate could be only two votes shy of the 67 needed to send the measure to the states for ratification.
As disgusting and disturbing as I may find the desecration of the Stars and Stripes, as angered as I may be by the destruction of the flag I swore allegiance to as both a child and a soldier, this legislation should not join the highest law of our land. In fact, it is for precisely those reactions that it should not be banned — it is an effective means of expressing an opinion, and especially of drawing attention to that expression, that actually harms no other. I swore my fealty to the flag and to the republic it represents; that republic should hold forth a greater notion of the value of its freedoms than of its symbols.