The US Constitution should be amended to include a provision that phohibits the desecration of the flag.?

Question

In the negative (this is a debate for school and I need a couple of opinions. Thank You

Answer 1

My debate points would be that that there are many more serious issues that the government should be addressing at this time. Flag burning isn't a big problem in this country. It's other countries that burn our flag and our constitution doesn't apply there. The administration uses frivolous issues such as this to distract people from the really serious issues.
It is also an expression of our right to freedom of speech. Although it stands for a lot the flag itself is only a piece of cloth, and if people are going to be prosecuted for burning a piece of cloth that they own then what is this country becoming? This country was based on freedom. Finally you might want to mention that the documented proper way to retire a flag is to burn it. So who is to say whether it is desecration?

In response to Jim, all of those people didn't give their lives to protect the flag. They gave their lives to protect what the flag stands for... freedom.

Answer 2

In the negative?

I am assuming you want arguments as to why this amendment would be bad.

One would be that the flag is a symbol of America, it is not America. The flag stands for our country and what it was founded on. Freedom of speech is a core right of our nation and no amendment should be made that infringes on it what so ever, Even speech that is reprehensible to most citizens is protected.

Another is freedom of speech does not protect you from all consequences. Most states have laws that if a flag is about to be desecrated you can use force to protect that flag.

Then you have to look at what all will be thrown into this catagory. Will flag tooth picks on the fourth of July be protected? What about a T-shirt with the flag on it? This amendment as the potential to spread into confining laws and make stupid rules that effects all the public. The government has been known to pass stupid laws, so I don't put it past them.

Also this is not a problem in this nation really. I think they could say definately 4 flags were burned last year in protest. The flag is actually respected by most and truthfully there isn't that much flag burning or desecration happening. It is well known by most protestors that to burn a flag is to kill your cause.

And as you can tell, I am not a fan of the flag burning amendment. I believe that the ones who fought and died before us did so for the nation, not the flag. They fought for rights, not symbols. The flag is very important and should be respected, but to pass an amendment for that would cause more harm to our country than any concieved good if it were to happen.

Edit- Oh yea, almost forgot. Rights of property. When you buy a flag, do you not own it? In my area you can burn down your house as long as you don't try to file insurance. You can buy a car for the sole perpose of crashing it in a demolision derby. It would be bad knowing that buying a flag could end me up in jail if I didn't know flag code by heart. Such an amendment could actually cause less flags to be bought and flown.

Answer 3

The flag is only a symbol. In and of itself, it has no meaning other than that which we invest in it. In the United States there has been a lot of energy spent making sure that people invest a lot of meaning in the flag, to whit: the anthem is all about the flag; children say the pledge of allegiance, to the flag, in school everyday.

As a result of all this indoctrination into flag worship, a lot of people seem to get pretty upset when someone desecrates the flag.

Yet more important, arguably, to the nation are its founding principles. In the United States today many of those founding principles are under threat. The Bush administration has reversed hundreds of years of government policy by adopting a first strike policy in warfare. Prior to this Americans always contended they would not start a war. The allegations of rigging in both the 2000 and 2004 elections are a serious challenge to the democratic principles on which the nation was founded. Even if unfounded, these allegations are a serious threat to the nations political institutions. The torture of prisoners of war and the violation of signed treaties by the Administration in the pursuit of war are also pretty offensive to the image most Americans have had of their country.

Yet, in all this, some people think burning the flag is the offensive act. Hard to comprehend.

Perhaps burning a flag, as a means of protesting the violation of the nations founding principles by its own government, is the supreme act of patriotism.

Answer 4

The Constitution was written to assure us our rights and build a base for the writing of laws and not to contain specific laws. The constitution should not be used to speak against an expression which the burning of the flag is on the border of being. The United States is the most powerful nation in the world. The flag is merely a symbol and should be considered as such. It is the United states that should be our concern. There is only one. We can easily replace a flag.

Answer 5

The Constitution gives us rights. To amend it to take a way a right is going down a slippery slope. There has only been one time that it has been amended to take a right and that was prohibition.
The only amendment that should be made to the Constitution is to clarify the 14th Amendment. Since the 1887 case Santa Clara County v. Southern Pacific Railroad Company where the clerk of the court wrote in the headnote's that the justices had said that corporations had the rights of persons under the 14th Amendment. This has been used to set many legal decisions that has got us where we are today. It doesn't give unions, church, charities the same personhood......just corporations. And they have used this "personhood" to unsurp the power of government from We The People.

Answer 6

Let me begin by saying that I HATE WHEN PEOPLE BURN THE AMERICAN FLAG!! It is a symbol of our freedom, which hundreds of thousands of soldiers have died for throughout our history. Having said that, I don't think their should be an amendment that prohibits desecration of the flag. One of our freedoms is freedom of expression, and unfortunately, burning the flag is one. If the Constitution was amended to prohibit desecration of the flab, who's to say that other laws wouldn't be passed taking away more of our freedoms. Maybe there could be a law which would make it legal to beat the crap out of people who do burn the flag! I'd vote for it!

Answer 7

I believe there should be an amendment. So many people over the last 200 years have given their lives to protect the flag of the united states. They did not give their time and lives just so some angry college student can set it on fire and stomp on it. Funny how they live in a country that they can speak out. I feel it's desicration and it offends me. The flag is a symbol of our country and, at least to me, it's the greatest in the world. If you're going to insult our country in that way, feel free to leave.

Answer 8

The First Amendment is the cornerstone of American life, but it has been under attack now for many years. Our rights are eroding because low-minded people are willing to trade true freedom for a false sense of security, and this has got to stop. A prohibition against flag-burning would further weaken the First Amendment for no real benefit at all.

Fabric has no civil rights, and it doesn't need any. Let's save the rights we have for people.

Answer 9

I am sorry, I cannot answer in the negative. While the courts have held that this act is protected by Constitution under freedom of expression I cannot hold with someone within this country who does such a thing. However because we have no such amendment, it is a sign of how great our country is. What other country would be so forgiving if symbols of their nation were disrespected similarly.

Answer 10

i do not pick to ascertain human beings desecrating the flag. yet one of those regulation may restrict human beings from desecration. it may don't have any result on human beings in different international places. The flag is a representation of our liberties and freedoms, and between the biggest of those freedoms is the right to free speech, or therefore expression. the freedom to precise that you're unhappy with the present political evaluations of the overall public of human beings. ought to we attempt to outlaw those who do not always believe us vocalizing / demonstrating, we may all be the poorer for it. And what may be next? properly, we don't like what the newspaper prints, or what the commentator says on television, so we ought to always bypass an modification that asserts we received't say some thing undesirable about the authorities. I say, if it is the kind of usa you pick to stay in, so that you could ascertain about moving to China, or North Korea, or Iran...Syria... and so on. how you could still keep human beings from desecrating their personal international places flag, is to easily no longer pay interest to the message they attempt to espouse by technique of doing with the point to attain interest.