To Burn or not to Burn...

It must be election season because the Republicans are rolling out another Constitutional Amendment regarding Flag Burning. I’ve never considered Flag Burning myself, but as an act of self expression protected by the Constitution, I feel the status quo on the subject is fine. Sure, there will be bleeding-heart pseudo-Patriots who will beg through clinched teeth and tear streaked faces that Old Glory is representative of all that makes the United States good and right … and of course they would be wrong.

The Supreme Court set the record on what the flag represented in 1901, after the United States acquired the Philippines, and its 10 million inhabitants, from Spain for 20 million dollars as the settlement of Spanish American War. Since slavery had been abolished with the 13th Amendment and there was no explicit description within the Constitution allowing for colonies or the holding of persons divested of rights, there was a sticky issue that required the Supreme Court’s opinion. As of the Treaty of Paris in 1898, the Filipinos were living under the American flag, but with no Constitutional Rights. The Supreme Court, in a 5 to 4 decision where none of the concurring judges could agree on the rational for the decision, decided that the rights and protections of the US Constitution do not necessarily follow the American Flag. In essence, the Supreme Court, in 1901, divorced Old Glory from the Constitution, thereby reducing the flag to little more than a territorial marker.

Under this reality, it is a waste of time to protect Old Glory with an Amendment to the Constitution it doesn’t even represent