At Least Thirty Four Got it Right

I was pleased to see that at least 34 of our State Senators had sense (and courage) to vote against an amendment that would prohibit burning the American Flag. Conversely, I am saddend by the weak-willed politicians who hide behind partison politics or havent' got a wit of backbone to take a common sense stand on this issue.

Yes, the Flag is a meaningful symbol, so is the Bible, the Koran, the Torah and other items of worship or respresentation. I will not deny that men, women and children have sacrificed, fought, and died for our country and the freedoms our country allows and stands for, including freedom of speech. Our flag is a symbol for the freedom of speech... and the right to bare arms for that matter. The sacrifices I refer to were for those freedoms... not the symbol. Or stated another way, these Americans did not fight and die for the flag, but rather what the flag stands for.

That said, we honor those sacrifices not by protecting a symbol, but by protecting what that symbol stands for.

If, for example, someone were to publically burn the Koran or the Torah, there would be armies of people incited enough to take up arms or declare a Fatwah against that person or those people. Consider the pillage that resulted from the cartoon characterization of Allah. Most Amercians labeled these insurrengents as zelots, radicals or religious fanatics. Many Americans vilified these people and called them radicals or extremists because they were fighting for a symbol. Many then accused these upset people of using this situation as an excuse for violence. We admonished these rebels and self-rightously opined our views and penned editorials glorifying our "freedom of speech".

Now I ask, if we were to pass an anti-flag burning amendment, would we not be throwing stones in our own glass house? Would we not be giving our government yet another vague excuse (ala WMDs and 9/11) to incite war or violence? Would we not become perceptively the same sort of "extremists" that we have ridiculed for rioting against those people who exercised freedom of speech by published charactures of Allah?

According to official sources, there were fewer than 15 cases of flag-burning in the U.S. in 2005. By comparison, how many Americans were wrongly denied health-care benefits? And, as a direct (or indirect) result of our governmenal healthcare travesty how many of those tax-paying, freedom fighting, democratic and republican Americans died? How many billions of American dollars were fraudulantly awarded or misallocated by governement agencies which directly or indirectly resulted in deminishing the quality of life that our solders fought and died for? Again, I ask how many American lives have been lost as a direct result of this mismanagement, or other governmental abuse?

Don't you think these are are the important items for our elected officials to spend time and effort debating and resolving rather than trying to whittle away at our first amendment rights?

So, to those 64 senators on the public payroll who normally (despite my polical bent) deserve some semblance of respect, I have this to say about our flag... it's a symbol, albeit an important symbol, but simply a simbol, that's it. The flag is not as important as the feedoms it represents.

And now that this amendment has rightfully been shot down, I suggest you ALL over your partison politics, stop election-year postioning, and get on with legislation that will improve our quality of life, save lives (domestically and internationally), and make this country as well as the freedoms we profess worth fighting for.