Land of the Free

I found this in the newspaper today:

“Countries that already outlaw burning the national flag include China, North Korea, Iraq, Iran and Cuba.”

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,11069-1667033,00.html

What the above partial list tells us is that any country that would pass such a law is currently, or is on its way to becoming, a police state, to whatever degree. We need to put aside imagining how we might actually feel were we to see someone burning our flag in order to evaluate what the proposed amendment to our Constitution says about the direction our country has taken.

There is simply no need for such a constitutional amendment or, I will go even further to say, regular criminal legislation. As DD has pointed out, the crime of damaging property belonging to another already exists.

The United States was founded on principles of liberty, as we have all agreed. The word “liberty” is in our Declaration of Independence as one of our “unalienable rights” and in the preamble to our Constitution as a “blessing” to be secured for “our posterity”. Any amendment to the Constitution, therefore, should increase our liberties, not take away from them.