Letter: Be careful when declaring things such as flags sacred

Wednesday, June 2, 1999 | 12:10 p.m.

If we thought about it at all, what we fought for is what our flag stands for. And what it stands for is precisely the opposite of what the proposed constitutional amendment permitting the criminalization of flag desecration would accomplish.

Moreover, do we really trust government to decide when any of us has profaned, defiled, dishonored, violated or insulted the flag? Even if we think we can trust today's government to define "desecrate" reasonably and fairly -- essentially a subjective task -- can we trust all future governments to define "desecrate" reasonably and fairly?

Is Old Glory so endangered, so much weaker than those of us who love it, that it will perish if we don't form a human chain and protect it from any exposure to insult, perhaps mortally wounding our Bill of Rights in the process?

Not very far down this road is something really ugly. We can see governments so intolerant of beliefs that differ from those officially proclaimed, forcefully imposed and brutally defended that they issue death warrants condemning people who dare to express forbidden views, and pay terrorists to murder those who defile what has been declared sacred wherever in the world these infidels may be found.

Of course no government in the United States ever would go so far. Ever.

But to guarantee that this would never happen in the United States, the Constitution of the United States should never be amended to make it even theoretically possible. Never.

C. H. MC CREA

archive