Those Who Desecrate the American Flag Need Not be Punished

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Those Who Desecrate the American Flag Need Not be Punished

In reality, flags are just fibers and dye. The fact is, like all symbols, it is not necessarily the fabric or the picture which provokes so much emotion in people. It’s the intangible idea that it represents. Controversy continually circles around symbols and how they are treated, respected, and destroyed. The flag of the United States of America is one such symbol that many associate with freedom; however, to others it carries greater political importance. Adding chaos to controversy, do we as a nation punish those who deny the symbol that gives them freedom to destroy it in the first place? Should the constitution be amended to prohibit the desecration of the flag? The measure is not how we treat those who support our government, but how we treat those who oppose it.

Society constantly struggles to keep our Constitution broad enough to protect the rights of Americans, yet create a positive compass by which to live. The problem, however, is that by conforming to specific moral beliefs, such as desecration of the flag, we begin to create the environment much like the one George Orwell established in Animal Farm. In his book, the farm animals at first agree that all animals have equal rights. However, as the book develops, one powerful group manipulates these rights, the pigs . The slogan “ All animals are equal” eventually becomes “more equal than others”. Just like the animals of the farm, our forefathers constructed a government that could please all people rights. Our forefathers know that if the Constitution were to survive, it must possess the ability to change and adapt to coming ages.

To amend the constitution means that it doesn’t support all Americans and their beliefs. However, I don’t feel that our Constitution needs amending at all. Burning the American Flag is an act of speech which fosters Democracy. Without the freedom to destroy the flag and act out in disapproval, we as a countrymen would live single-mindedly.

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