The Flag-burning Debate Continues
Nazis captured Jim Rogers. He was routinely beaten and given barely enough food to survive. During the time he spent in a World War II prisoner of war camp, he managed to keep his sanity by scraping together bits and pieces of colored cloth in order to make an American flag. As his fellow prisoners began to die, it was his American flag which provided him with a sense of identity and gave him the inspiration to keep living.
It is no wonder, then, that Jim becomes disturbed when he turns on the news and sees our flag being burned in the streets of foreign nations. What disturbs him even more is when he sees the American flag being burned by Americans in America. In 1989, the Supreme Court overturned, in a 5-4 decision, a guilty verdict against a Texas flag-burner, claiming that burning the American flag is a form of free speech which is constitutionally protected. Yet the fact that flag-burning is legal does not ease Jim's angst, and apparently his feelings are shared by many of his fellow Americans. The majority of Americans are in favor of adopting a constitutional amendment that would make flag-burning illegal (Johnson 16).
After multiple attempts, a flag-burning amendment was finally approved by the House of Representatives in 1995, but it fell 3 votes short of approval in the Senate (Buckly 75). Still, lobbyists continue to push for anti-flag-burning legislation. One may wonder why, if the majority of Americans want the flag protected, does Congress and the Supreme Court continue to resist the idea of a flag amendment.
The easiest argument to make against protecting the flag is that burning it is a form of free speech which is protected by the First Ame...
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...y patriot," would answer, "Yes--it most certainly is." Arguments for and against a flag amendment, as is the case with most things in life, rest mainly upon subjective interpretations and points of view. Not until one side of the flag debate develops an irrefutable defense of their cause with this issue be settled; it will come as no surprise, then, if the flag-burning debate continues to rage for many years to come.
WORKS CITED
Buckley, William F. "On the Right." National Review 47. July 10, 1995: 75.
Ehrenreich, Barbara. "My Flag, Your Shorts." Time 1. July 3, 1995: 62.
Johnson, Adrian. "Value Judgments." Newsweek 26. June 25, 1990: 16-18.
Leo, John. "Oh, Say, Can You See . . . the Point?." U.S. News and World Report 119. July 10, 1995: 17.
Phillips, Robert S., ed. Funk & Wagnalls New Encyclopedia. New York: 1983.
Since its ratification in December of 1791, the Second Amendment has created a major controversy as Americans have been arguing over the meaning and interpretation of the amendment. Due to the controversy, “angry polarization and distortion, rather
Is the upholding of the American flag as a symbol of the United States more important than the freedom of speech provided by the First Amendment? Are there certain freedoms of expression that are not protected under the First Amendment and if so what qualifies as freedom of speech and expression and what does not? The Supreme Court case of Texas v. Johnson proves that the First Amendment and the freedom of speech are not limited to that of spoken and written word, but also extended to symbolic speech as well. Texas v. Johnson is a case in which the interpretation of the First Amendment rights is at the top of the argument. This case discusses the issue of flag burning as a desecration of national unity and that the flag of the United States should be protected under a law.
Johnson” case was one for the books. Not only was it one of the most controversial cases of its time, but still is today. Opinions vary on the subject, many agree with the majority of the supreme court, but many are still hesitant to speculate whether the rule in Johnson’s case is legitimate. Was Johnson act unconstitutional? The nation is still baffled at this question, because although it was considered a form of symbolic speech there is no way of knowing if it was meant to be a speech at all. Could it be possible that Johnson formulated this symbolic speech testimony after the fact? With only one man, Johnson, to question the fact, there is no true way of knowing whether or not the act wasn’t just a disgruntled man burning a flag simply because he was getting back at the nation for wronging him. Whatever the fact, the rule still stands and will stand to correct future cases by being a point to look at for
Constitutional amendments from freedom of speech to flag burning.. 2nd ed. Detroit, Mich.: UXL, 2008. Print.
According to the Tenth Amendment in the Bill of Rights: “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.” Though last in the Bill of Rights, it is one of the most powerful and ever changing in interpretation over the course of America’s history. Some historical events that altered its meaning include the Civil War, The Civil Right’s Movement, and even modern event’s like the Supreme Court ruling on gay marriage. In this paper I will discuss how the Tenth amendment has a large effect in both America’s history, but also how it is now portrayed America’s present.
Can an individual be prosecuted for openly burning the American flag in a political protest? Gregory Johnson did this in a political protest outside Dallas City Hall. He was then tried and convicted of desecrating a venerated object under a Texas law (Penal Code 42.09), which states that "a person commits an offense if he intentionally or knowingly desecrates a state or national flag" (317). The question of whether this Texas law is in violation of the First Amendment, which "holds that Congress shall make no law... abridging the freedom of speech" (316), was brought before the United States Supreme Court in Texas v. Johnson (1989). A divided court ruled 5 to 4 that the Texas law was in violation of the First Amendment. Using the same Constitution, precedents, and legal standards, the Supreme Court justices came to two drastically different positions regarding the constitutionality of prohibiting flag burning. To see how such a division is possible, we are going to compare and contrast both the arguments and the methods of argumentation used by both the majority opinion (written by Associate Justice Brennan) and the dissenting opinion (written by Chief Justice Rehnquist), which critiques the majority opinion.
How the judicial branch rules in cases relating to the 1st and how they relate that to all the rights of public school students. This includes anything from flag burning to not saluting the flag to practicing religion in school. The main point of this paper is to focus on the fact that schools have a greater ability to restrict speech than government.
The Civil War was partly about slavery. Therefore, many use the flag as a symbol of hatred towards people of different descent, especially African Americans. The idea that “negro is not equal to the white man,” or white supremacy, has caused many racist attacks (Coates, 2015). Most of these attacks have involved the presence of a Confederate flag. Recently, Dylann Roof committed a gruesome attack on nine African American congregants at their local church during a bible study (Henderson, 2015). He claimed to have been motivated by the Confederate flag. Sadly, this violent attack provides a perfect example of the racism symbolically presented by the Confederate flag.
Mary Pipher's "Saplings in the Storm" and William S. Pollack's "How U.S. Schools Are Stifling Male Students" are two writers that are very different but at the same time striving to get to the same goal which is to improve the lives of young children. They go about getting the same results two very different ways. Pipher is a female psychologist who concentrates on the adolescent development of females in today's society. Pollack is a male psychiatrist who writes about boys and the developmental stunting by schools in the United States. Their audience seems to be the same group of people, that off parents, but different kinds of people, parents with girls vs. parents with boys. This would point out that both writers seem to be trying to reach a friendly audience, but this is not apparent in the approaches they take.
There is much controversy surrounding the idea of patriotism and the iconography of the American flag in today’s society. Some believe patriotism is simply the act of supporting the decisions of the leaders of the country. Others say, to be patriotic, people should be outspoken and voice their oppositions to what is going on in the government. Opinions also differ on the idea of what the American flag represents. One opinion of the flags representation is that the flag represents our history, and the formerly mentioned idea of patriotism. Others believe the flag also represents our history as a nation, but these beliefs focus much more heavily on the negative aspects of our history; such as slavery and other injustices carried out by our nation. These people often believe we should find a new iconography for our country’s ideas of patriotism. As Barbara Kingsolver states in “And Our Flag Was Still There,” “Patriotism seems to be falling to whoever claims it loudest, and we’re left struggling to find a definition in a clamor of reaction” (Pg. 1). Therefore, every American’s duty is to define patriotism amongst the clamor of reaction, recapture the American flag’s representation, and create a new icon for the flag.
Ebola, a virus which acquires its name from the Ebola River (located in Zaire, Africa), first emerged in September 1976, when it erupted simultaneously in 55 villages near the headwaters of the river. It seemed to come out of nowhere, and resulted in the deaths of nine out of every ten victims. Although it originated over 20 years ago, it still remains as a fear among African citizens, where the virus has reappeared occasionally in parts of the continent. In fact, and outbreak of the Ebola virus has been reported in Kampala, Uganda just recently, and is still a problem to this very day. Ebola causes severe viral hemorrhagic fevers in humans and monkeys, and has a 90 % fatality rate. Though there is no cure for the disease, researchers have found limited medical possibilities to help prevent one from catching this horrible virus.
"Protecting Freedom of Expression on the Campus” by Derek Bok, published in Boston Globe in 1991, is an essay about what we should do when we are faced with expressions that are offensive to some people. The author discusses that although the First Amendment may protect our speech, but that does not mean it protects our speech if we use it immorally and inappropriately. The author claims that when people do things such as hanging the Confederate flag, “they would upset many fellow students and ignore the decent regard for the feelings of others” (70). The author discusses how this issue has approached Supreme Court and how the Supreme Court backs up the First Amendment and if it offends any groups, it does not affect the fact that everyone has his or her own freedom of speech. The author discusses how censorship may not be the way to go, because it might bring unwanted attention that would only make more devastating situations. The author believes the best solutions to these kind of situations would be to
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When Kimfumu, a 36 year old lab technician, became sick in Kikwit around the beginning of April, 1995, the hospital personnel treating him were puzzled (Brownlee 59). After operations on both April 9th and 10th, the doctors continued to mull over what was causing Kimfumu’s uncontrollable hemorrhages. Four days later Kimfumu died (59). Both nurses and nuns who cared for Kimfumu fell ill shortly following his death, and soon all died (Cowley 49).