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

Question

Why this amendment would be bad?

Answer 1

I think anybody who burns an American flag in this country is a moron. But the amendment runs up against the guarantee of free speech. Is it really free speech? Close call, but I'm not sure I want to amend the U.S. Constitution to prevent idiots from proving they're idiots. Amending the Constitution should be a sacred thing.

On the other hand, if it did happen, I'm okay with it. But if we're going to amend the Constitution, can't we do it for something more important. Maybe gurantee every child access to an actual education? Maybe outlaw indoctrination and propaganda in our public schools?

Answer 2

I don't like to see people desecrating the flag. But such a law would prohibit Americans from desecration. It would have no effect on people in other countries. The flag is a representation of our liberties and freedoms, and one of the most important of those freedoms is the right to free speech, or in this case expression. The freedom to express that you are unhappy with the current political views of the majority of Americans. Should we try to outlaw those who don't always agree with us vocalizing / demonstrating, we would all be the poorer for it.
And what would be next? Well, we don't like what the newspaper prints, or what the commentator says on TV, so we should pass an amendment that says we can't say anything bad about the government.
I say, if that is the type of country YOU want to live in, that you should see about relocating to China, or North Korea, or Iran...Syria... and so on.

The best way to keep Americans from desecrating their own countries flag, is to simply not listen to the message they are trying to espouse by doing so to gain attention.

Answer 3

No. It would conflict with the First Amendment, which is MUCH more important than some dumb cloth burning issue. Also, the Constitution is for protecting liberty, not taking liberty away. That's why Prohibition was such a disaster and had to be repealed. Also, it makes us look weak and stupid, like we're so delicate we fall to pieces over flag burning and have to ban it so we won't fall apart.

Americans aren't afraid of expression. That's a huge strength that sets America apart from much of the world.

Answer 4

The day they amend it is the day I burn a flag. Just to prove a point about Freedom of Speech. That's why. The flag is just a flag, nothing more, nothing less. Its cloth and material. The FACT that you guys get so effing emotional about it shows that you consider it an "idol" worthy of being worshipped. Of putting your hands on your hearts and SWEARING your life too.

That's an insult to your own God, but you don't even realize it. How will you even destroy a flag? The Boy Scouts teach that to get rid of an old or damaged flag, the ONLY way is to "burn" it.

Do you think its proper for a flag to be left up day and night? Do you thing flags being put on bumper stickers, where they fade to nothing is good? lol, what idiots. This happens all the time, but you say nothing.

Answer 5

Come back and ask me that question once the American government is no longer holding people for years without charging them or torturing them.

I'm so ashamed of that barbarity, as official government action, that I don't give a f*ck about the flag until we stop killing civilians and incarcerating them WITHOUT CHARGE.

By the way, it was that pimp, Dr. Frist from Tennesse, the Senate majority leader, that was such a leader for this flag amendment stuff. Wasn't he the one who huffed and puffed about that brain dead soul in Florida? Isn't he a paragon of the Christian right? How can you POSSIBLY be a Christian and permit officially-sanctioned torture?

I want an answer to that before I consider the flag to be holy. I"m not asking for much here.

Answer 6

It simply isn't needed. There are fewer than 20 cases a year of an American citizen burning an American Flag. That's a rediculously low number. We may as well have an Amendment banning nose picking on federal property.

Answer 7

Because desecrating the flag is a form of free expression. Since the act itself is not against human rights, then the government has no business banning the act

Answer 8

Every constitution should provide for the desecration of the flag because it is the symbol of the nation.

Answer 9

This is a DUMB political issue only meant to divide the country further.There were 4 reported instances of flag burning in the U.S. last year thats less than .000001 % of the entire population.WE DON'T NEED A STUPID AMENDMENT TO THE CONSTITUTION TO STOP IT WHEN ITS NOT THAT BIG OF A PROBLEM TO BEGIN WITH!!!!!!!!Our country is strong enough to withstand this sort of protest however mis guided it may be.For the record I would never do such a thing.

Answer 10

I think it should be legal for american citizens to promptly surround any flag-burners, or would-be flag-burners, and serenade them en masse with patriotic classics like 'my country tis of thee', the National Anthem, the ballad of New Orleans, maybe even see if they can find some banjo players for the occasion, or call Willie Nelson. Somewhere in there, probably long about the time Willie gets started talking about bio-diesel and the environment, your flag-burner will have pretty much broken down, or left in tears...