Posted on 06/20/2005 10:35:24 AM PDT by Tumbleweed_Connection
A newly released independent poll confirms that the vast majority of Americans want the U.S. Flag protected from acts of desecration.
The random poll of 1,004 adults nation-wide was conducted by the Opinion Research Corporation June 16-19. In responding to the question how important do you think it is to make flag desecration against the law, 81 percent said it was somewhat to extremely important. Another 75 percent said they wanted Congress to pass a flag protection constitutional amendment.
The poll echoes numerous others conducted since a 1989 U.S. Supreme Court decision overturned five previous courts and made flag desecration legal. Poll after poll indicated that between 75 percent and 80 percent of the public support legal protection of Old Glory from physical acts of desecration.
"I'm delighted but not surprised that this poll again confirms what we already know," said Thomas P. Cadmus, national commander of The American Legion. "When asked a straight forward question, most Americans will give you a straight answer -- protect Old Glory."
The U.S. House of Representatives is expected to vote on HJR- 10, the flag protection amendment this week.
Only 28 percent of those surveyed said they would be likely to vote for someone who is opposed to protecting the U.S. Flag.
Complete poll results are available online at http://www.legion.org.
"The people have spoken again loud and clear," Cadmus said. "I urge Members of Congress to heed the voices of the people and the call of all 50 state legislatures. Pass the flag protection amendment now."
The poll has a 3 percent margin of error.
I can't wait to see how the courts try to define what a flag is (do the small plastic ones count; those on the ends of toothpicks; patches that are sewn on; a cloth flag with 49 stars; those on clothing) and what constitutes desecration (leaving it out in the rain; failure to illuminate at night).
Yeah, but I caught the comment first!
We both fixed on the circular logic of the comment.
I'm willing to call it a tie. ;)
Over 80% are wrong....
I never saw an American flag burned at a gun show.
I know that many of us are fed up with the gov.org that we have now. At some point down the road chances are they will have to be toppled, (hopefully not anytime soon).
My question is at what point does the flag represent the gov.org and everything they do wrong. Most of us here will say that the flag represents what out founding fathers did. Nonetheless I have a feeling that future generations might not feel the same.
The same thing applies to the pledge of allegiance. Is there a fine line between pledging allegiance to what the flag use to stand for and what our gov.org does in the name of the flag?
Aside from the item you mentioned... If they passed this amendment, it will take about two minutes for a smart capitalist to make a 'non-flag' just for desecrating that looks like a US flag but maybe has umm, 51 stars or 14 stripes. What then?
And these same 80 percent are the ones that can't see past a letter to vote for a candidate. I'm sure the Framers would be excited that the majority of the citizens of the respective states are for a constitutional amendment to protect a symbol. Maybe we can get a constitutional amendment passed so all the little kiddies will be forced to say a socialist pledge to it every morning in school as well.
Really. And to think this nation of states was able to last over 100 years before a socialist wrote a 'pledge' to a piece of cloth.
That bothers me when I see it.
A little off-topic, but even worse, in my humble opinion, is exposing the scared name and symbols of Christ to the elements by displaying them on bumper stickers and such.
How could the flag even remotely be symbolic of the pledge? What came first, the chicken or the egg?
Surprised?
"If they passed this amendment, it will take about two minutes for a smart capitalist to make a 'non-flag' just for desecrating that looks like a US flag but maybe has umm, 51 stars or 14 stripes. What then?"
Then it's not a real American flag and wouldn't make any difference.
Would it?
Worst mea culpa ever.
Tattered, torn, beaten, mocked, bruised and bleeding.
I pledge allegiance to the Constitution of the United States of America, and to the Republic, of which it governs, one Nation, answering to God, with Liberty and Justice for all.
The flag is but a symbol.
Instead of making flag-burning illegal, another way to to approach this is to pass a law recognizing in each person a privilege to use reasonable force, short of deadly force, to protect a flag from being abused. In places like Berkeley or Boston flag burners would be completely safe because no one would care. In places like Texas and Wyoming, a flag burner might get a well deserved punch in the nose.
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