Flag Burning Amendment
Jun. 29th, 2006 02:15 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
forsythWow, I'm glad there's ABSOLUTELY NOTHING IMPORTANT for the Senate to be dealing with, so they spent two days arguing about amending the Constitution to allow them to ban "flag desecration."
"The Congress shall have power to prohibit the physical desecration of the flag of the United States."
You know, it's not even free speech that makes me so annoyed by this. It's the sheer stupidity of the whole farce. There's not some kind of epidemic of flag burning going around. And banning "flag desecration" would probably be more likely to affect the kind of people who'd vote for that kind of thing than anybody else. What with all the tattered and raggedy flags on SUV antennas, or pale and faded and forgotten magnet flags on the trunks.
And the other really stupid part? They don't even know what the flag code already says. "(k) The flag, when it is in such condition that it is no longer a fitting emblem for display, should be destroyed in a dignified way, preferably by burning."
Honestly, I'm more annoyed by people who disrepect the flag out of stupidity, laziness, or because ignorance than people who burn flags as a protest. The people burning it at a protest are at least trying to say something, even if that something is just "We're young and pissed and want to get people's attention and make them mad!"
It's kinda like the people who forced the "...one nation, under God..." into the Pledge of Allegiance, without paying any attention to the parts of the Bible about not swearing oaths. And the argument that it's "Just four little words nobody really pays attention to," really seems like it's probably more harmful to religion than to not-religion. I mean, training people not to care about oaths they're theoretically making in front of God?
The rest of the rules for the respect of the flag are pretty specific. And ignored anyway. Heck, the whole US Code relating to the flag is ignored by most people. Especially congresscritters.
"The Congress shall have power to prohibit the physical desecration of the flag of the United States."
You know, it's not even free speech that makes me so annoyed by this. It's the sheer stupidity of the whole farce. There's not some kind of epidemic of flag burning going around. And banning "flag desecration" would probably be more likely to affect the kind of people who'd vote for that kind of thing than anybody else. What with all the tattered and raggedy flags on SUV antennas, or pale and faded and forgotten magnet flags on the trunks.
And the other really stupid part? They don't even know what the flag code already says. "(k) The flag, when it is in such condition that it is no longer a fitting emblem for display, should be destroyed in a dignified way, preferably by burning."
Honestly, I'm more annoyed by people who disrepect the flag out of stupidity, laziness, or because ignorance than people who burn flags as a protest. The people burning it at a protest are at least trying to say something, even if that something is just "We're young and pissed and want to get people's attention and make them mad!"
It's kinda like the people who forced the "...one nation, under God..." into the Pledge of Allegiance, without paying any attention to the parts of the Bible about not swearing oaths. And the argument that it's "Just four little words nobody really pays attention to," really seems like it's probably more harmful to religion than to not-religion. I mean, training people not to care about oaths they're theoretically making in front of God?
The rest of the rules for the respect of the flag are pretty specific. And ignored anyway. Heck, the whole US Code relating to the flag is ignored by most people. Especially congresscritters.
