Burn The Flag Essay, Research Paper

Our right to protest can be conducted in many methods. By speech,

by petition, by billboards, by sending letters, by holding up signs

and walking around in circles, by televising concerns, by going on

talk shows, radio shows, and even by burning the American Flag.

Flag burning is only one of the many methods of negative

expression. Today we debate over the American Flag, what does it

stand for and what is it s value. First of all, what is a flag? A flag is

a fabric used for symbolic purposes. The American Flag may mean a

whole lot for some people, but to others the American Flag is only a

symbol, identification, fabric. Under the Constitution, the right

exists for the owner of a symbol to destroy it using any method

desired, whether the gesture be for political reasons, or to meet

religious or humorous objectives, or to cast a fiery dagger into

someone s heartfelt beliefs. Any and all flags are just symbols.

Nothing more. A flag can mean a lot to one person and at the same

time can be despised by another. It can be legally hated or dearly

loved. It can be converted into a pride- shirt, skirt, or bikini, it can

be used on a fender of a car, or spit upon all without violating the

Constitution. Why? Because flags themselves are nothing more than

personally owned things – symbolic things. In a free country, things

can be legally destroyed at the will of the owner. Dissenters who

burn flags, and rant and rave anti-American slogans on street

corners, are still Americans. They are Americans possessing and

practicing their freedom to express themselves even though their

methods of protest may be far different from those of others, their

ideas may be serious. Nevertheless, outlawing flag burning with

only increase its symbolic value, as a result there will be more flag

burning. If you people think that flag burning degrades our

government, our nation, ourselves, think of outlawing spitting on

our grounds, cause that surely shows disrespect to our land, our

nation, our government, ourselves. The flag is a symbol of freedom,

a symbol. The red bars are tributes to the blood shed by the

colonists who revolted against tyrannical oppression, including

censorship and the inability to protest against government policies.

Flag burning destroy the flag, but if make an amendment to protect

it, you destroy what is stands for.