My comment on a Corner post about a little dust-up over the latest revival of idiotic talk about an anti-flag-burning amendment:
The very passion of those who support anti-flag-burning amendments is, ironically, the strongest argument against such an amendment.
"Burning an American flag is conduct — not speech," James Carey, says. Well, will the amendment prohibit the burning of all squares of cloth? Because that's the behavior. Is someone likely to be extremely upset if I go burn my pillow case?
But the flag is not, of course, just a pillowcase, not just a square of cloth. It's a symbol. It's an idea. That's why burning it is such powerful speech. It communicates, succinctly, utter disrespect for this nation and for the men who fought and died so that you'd have the freedom to desecrate the symbol many of them fought under. It's despicable. And that's exactly why it has to be protected.
People who burn flags are generally America-hating political dissidents. We do not find excuses to criminalize the expressions of our political dissidents in this nation. Leave that to China. Ask Chen Guangcheng about that.
If the ideals the flag symbolizes are as good and worthy as we think they are, then America-haters can burn a truckload of flags and never weaken a stitch of the real fabric this nation is made from.
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