Posted on 06/08/2005 11:26:52 AM PDT by newgeezer
Washington, D.C. — Leading up to Memorial Day, with the support of Iowa Congressman Steve King, the House Judiciary Committee passed a Constitutional amendment that would allow Congress to make it a crime to burn the American flag.
Although almost eighty percent of Americans support a Constitutional amendment banning desecration of the American flag, in 1989 and 1990 the Supreme Court ruled that laws passed by Congress violated the First Amendment. Passing a constitutional amendment is the only way to protect the American flag from acts of desecration.
“Our Founding Fathers would have never imagined the need for an amendment to the Constitution like this,” said King. “They fought so hard to be able to display the American flag, and they did so proudly. This Memorial Day weekend, we must remember all of those who fought for our country and this flag. It’s not just patriotic to want to protect this flag, but our duty as Americans.”
“This flag has led the way into battle, been planted on the moon and draped the coffins of Americans who have sacrificed their lives for our county. It was raised at Iwo Jima and in the debris at Ground Zero. It is the symbol of freedom to everyone in the world,” added King.
H.J. Res. 10, the Flag Protection Amendment, will need to be passed by two-thirds of the full House and Senate and be ratified by three-fourths of the states to become law. The amendment has been passed by the House with more than the two-thirds majority needed in the past five Congresses. In addition, all 50 state legislatures have petitioned Congress to approve a flag protection amendment and send it to them for ratification. The amendment has been considered in the Senate twice in the last five Congresses, and both times it failed to garner the two-thirds majority needed.
If you consider my looking for anyone to present a persuasive argument for the other side to be the equivalent of "trolling" then, sure. Guilty as charged.
I second your opinion. Allow the fools that hold this nation in low regard to light a beacon to themselves (as long as it's their flag) so that we may know them. Old Glory is the symbol of an idea. An idea that cannot be burned.
That's what I thought.
Here's my opinion:
Those who burn the American flag as a sign of disrespect towards America, or as some kind of 'protest', are pond-scum-sucking *ssholes who don't deserve a single one of the liberties that Old Glory signifies.
And it's my Constitutional right to think and say so...
I can't express how pleased I am that the vast majority of posters on this thread stand on the side of freedom.
I'm all for an Amendment prohibiting desecrating the flag. However, the attempts congress made in the past to ban the practice, truly were constitutionally obscene.
And if someone was to vandalize the Lincoln Memorial in the name of free speech?
If that person holds the deed to it, I have no problem with his doing whatever he wants with it.
Now Lets try an experiment.
Substitution.
Those who burn the American German flag as a sign of disrespect towards America the Fatherland , or as some kind of 'protest', are pond-scum-sucking *ssholes...
Maybe now you can see the difference. You dont have to like it, but we are who we are because we tolerate that manner of dissent.
Except for the part about whether they deserve their Constitutional rights, I agree.
One of the great things about our nation is that, because we're right, we can let people be wrong. No matter how thoroughly wrong they are, it doesn't change the fact that we're right.
That's freedom. That's liberty.
And it's my Constitutional right to think and say so...
Of course it is. That goes without saying. So, I can only wonder why you thought it needed to be said.
Geez, let's desecrate what the flag symbolized, to protect the symbol...
Hey Rep King, howzabout you work on fixing some of the real ills in this country, then you can waste time on this stuff when the job we're paying you to do is finished.
You can't see the difference between the Stars and Stripes and the Nazi swastika, or differentiate between what the two banners stand for?
Amazing.
Then support his constitutional amendment to repeal the 16th amendment.
Flags are pieces of Cloth. It is the Ideals they represent that differentiates them.
Apparently it is you that is unable to make the differentiation......
There, that's better.
That is true. However, it is their Right.
And precisely because it is their RIGHT, we are who we are.
Hmm, really? I did not know that.
Apparently it is you who is unable to read and comprehend my posts.
Sorry. The actions of scumsucking America-haters doesn't affect who I am in the least.
U.S. Muslims desecrate American flag
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1419017/posts
So, are these folks simply 'exercising free speech', or would you consider them a threat to the realities behind the symbol?
Personally, I'd trust a Leftist flag-burner just about exactly as far as I'd trust these jihadis...
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