In 1989, the Supreme Court issued a ruling that destroying a flag in protest is protected free speech. Kaitlin Shawgo of the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette has an article about the decline of flag burning as a pressing issue in American politics. There’s nothing that would make me want to burn a flag except attempts to prohibit it. I doubt flag burning was ever a very common past-time and the controversy about the need to ban it was mainly ginned up for votes and campaign money.
I may be the only man in America who thinks this way, but, first, flag-burning is protected speech, and should be honored as such; the flag burner marginalizes himself enough without anyone else needing to bother about it, and ought simply to be prosecuted to the extent local fire regulations permit–like the goddam Hendersons down the street, the ones who shoot off their friggin’ fireworks six months of the year now–and otherwise ignored.
What I find objectionable is the commodification of the flag, especially for purposes of facile “patriotism”, and the attendant disregard for all forms of honor and respect when that’s what’s supposed to be on display. Got a patriotic neighbor who flies Old Glory in his front yard? How many of these apply: 1) it flies constantly, in all types of weather; 2) it flies at night, without illumination; 3) it’s on a fixed staff, and no black ribbon is attached in periods of national mourning; 4) it’s in a state of disrepair? In the post-9/11 surge of easy nationalism, how many cheap plastic flags flew off car window frames long after they’d been reduced to shredded Red White and Clear baggies?
The flag is not an article of clothing, it’s not a piece of bunting, and it does not belong on the athletic outfits of professional ballplayers. It is not your choice when to fly it at half-mast; that power resides with the President and your governor, and not the mayor of Indianapolis. If you fly it out of respect you should treat it will all due respect, or else respectfully decline.
I’ve participated in the burning of a number of United States flags – but always as part of a respectful ceremony to retire a worn-out flag, reminding people of the symbolism behind the fabric.
If you’re curious, the huge flags flown from some of the service stations by major highways go up with the most impressive flame!
It’s just a bit ironic that the act of attempting to protect the object via criminalizing its destruction harms the thing symbolized by the object more than the destruction of the object ever could.