"Liberty and the grand old flag"

Denver Post
June 14, 2005

Editorial

Today, June 14, is Flag Day - and a good time to remember what our star spangled banner stands for. The true meaning of our flag was clearly and eloquently expressed in the original Pledge of Allegiance written by Francis Bellamy and James Upham and published on Oct. 11, 1892:

I pledge allegiance to my Flag,
and to the Republic for which it stands:
one Nation indivisible,
With Liberty and Justice for all.

While there have been several modifications to that original wording, nothing has diluted its meaning - that loyal Americans honor not just the Stars and Stripes but also "the Republic for which it stands."

It is the vision of ordered liberty set forth in the Constitution and the Bill of Rights that inspired so many patriotic Americans to risk their lives on behalf this Republic on battlefields as far apart as Concord Bridge, Iwo Jima and Hawija, Iraq. Yet in recent years, some misguided Americans have attempted to erode those liberties in the name of protecting the very flag that so proudly symbolizes them. Chief among those misguided proposals have been five congressional efforts to curtail the First Amendment by overturning several U.S. Supreme Court decisions since the 1970s that held that burning the flag as a form of political or social protest is protected speech.

This year, Congress is considering two such proposals, House Joint Resolution 10 and Senate Joint Resolution 12. Five earlier attempts to amend the Constitution to punish flag desecration have been adopted by the House since 1995, but all faltered in the Senate. The most recent attempt in the Senate, in 2003, failed by just two votes.

Even as the House prepares to vote, The First Amendment Center has released a new survey showing 63 percent of those sampled said the Constitution "should not be amended to prohibit burning or desecrating the American flag." That disapproval is up from 53 percent in 2004 and the highest opposition to the proposed amendment since the annual survey began in 1997.

The growing sentiment against the flag- burning amendment reflects an effort by groups such as Veterans Defending the Bill of Rights, an organization of thousands of veterans committed to preserving our traditional freedoms. As Colin Powell, former secretary of state and chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said, "The First Amendment exists to ensure that freedom of speech and expression applies not just to that with which we agree or disagree, but also that which we find outrageous. I would not amend that great shield of democracy to hammer a few miscreants. The flag will be flying proudly long after they have slunk away."

We couldn't agree more.