Friday, June 6, 2003 10:38 AM CDT
Ban on burning American flag will not honor it
BY HARRY REYNOLDS, Opinions Page Editor
The U.S. House of Representatives' 300-125 vote in favor of amending the Constitution to outlaw flag burning, about as predictable as Earth's course around the sun.
It's easy to profess patriotism --99 and 44 percent of the American public loves the American Flag -- but the real test is the ramifications of free speech.
Cherishing one's right to free speech doesn't always extend to the other guy. Prior to, and during, Gulf War II, a number of the talking heads on the FOX News Network clamored for the government to muzzle protesters.
FOX, admittedly, isn't the only TV entity professing fair and balanced news coverage while slavishly embracing the right wing of the Republican Party.
On the other hand, CBS, NBC and ABC manage to project their bias in measured, pontificating monotones, while making it clear they're playing scout for the left wing of the Democratic Party.
No wonder Americans don't believe the news media is impartial. It isn't. The single greatest fallacy -- which has caused untold damage to the institution -- of the media is the assumption that it is even possible to be totally impartial.
To assume we are speaks of arrogance.
Relentless impartiality may come at some distant point in time, when androids replace human beings in the nation's newsroom: video and print. Of course, by then, humankind will probably be serving those shambling hunks of tin.
To defend the news media is to say, We try to be fair. Not all of us. But most of us.
Turn back history, wade into ancient issues of any daily, or weekly, newspaper and one discovers attempts at impartiality began mere decades ago. Compared to the "Good Old Days," today's publishers, editors, and reporters deliver the news with the impartiality of a Solomon.
People will believe what they want to believe. The more open minded will be receptive to honesty, while the closed minded demand the news reflect their particularly bias.
Perhaps, that's why the media these days is so into "your news."
An indication of wisdom in seeking what is true and what is not is the willingness to question one's own beliefs; demanding, instead, that they be tested. Not adhering to any mantra-like predisposition.
The United States isn't populated by perfect people; on occasion, the majority mood borders on tyrannical, swamping reason, feeding on blind, unbridled emotion.
And, sometimes, striking out at minorities. It happened during World War II when American citizens, who happened to be of Japanese descent, were herded into internment camps.
In the shadow of the flag. An act of desecration.
Our nation's history is replete with movements toward unreasoning conformity of thought and action; and periods of cynicism, in which we disdain to agree because we don't trust our government.
Still, our imperfections as a people are offset by the curious intractability of individualism. We're eternally in the middle of a war pitting our individuality against mankind's most malevolent foe -- the desire to conform.
Individualism, often irritating, plows and seeds the ground from which springs democratic capitalism.
Overall, Americans tend to be a middle-of-the-road pragmatic people, evoking a healthy respect for the opinions of others. Tending to trust those they elect, up to a point, and prone to political apathy.
And here we find congressmen eager to destroy the very things the American Flag represents -- freedom, justice and equality.
The proposed change to the Constitution reads, "The Congress shall have power to prohibit the physical desecration of the flag of the United States."
Which, in itself, is desecration.
According to Republican Rep. Steve Chabot of Ohio, burning the flag shows disrespect for America. The majority of the American people approve of legally protecting Old Glory, he told the Associated Press.
And then the congressman said this:
"If we allow its defacement, we allow our country's gradual decline."
History records many transgressions against Old Glory; it having been burned and stamped into the ground by mobs; burned on the pole; toasted and roasted; shredded and ripped in all manner of outrageous ways.
Yet, the Republic has survived.
And, I suspect, it would continue to do so if the flag was burned 24 hours a day on every street corner in America.
Old Glory has been employed by hate groups, all vipers of speech while draping themselves in the deep folds of red, white and blue. How many times have we witnessed irate mobs employing the flag as lance against protesters insisting on voicing their outrage over war?
We could shut them up, of course. Frankly, it angered me to see protesters in the streets as our troops fought to liberate Iraq; once we have entered war, that's the time to stop protesting, and back the troops.
But, that's my opinion. Herein tyranny beckons, with its easy suggestion of censorship and suppression of those opposing war, some government policy, etc. -- for whatever reason.
How does one honor the flag by legislating against what it stands for?
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