Letter: American flag can endure any desecration

Monday, April 17, 2000 | 9:22 a.m.

As a World War II combat veteran I sympathize with his feelings for the flag, but the First Amendment doesn't limit its protection to expressions that are inoffensive. Besides, there are important reasons apart from the First Amendment for not outlawing flag desecration.

Would this proposed amendment strengthen or weaken the flag as a respected symbol of our beloved country?

Under the First Amendment, all symbols, however venerated, must endure insult without the protection of the law no matter how outrageously they may be defiled. For example, the Virgin Mary is displayed coated with dung and insinuated with pornography, but this disgraceful presentation is protected as a form of speech or critical expression notwithstanding its offensiveness. That the Virgin survives, unblemished, as a symbol of virtue without benefit of legal protection, is the ultimate measure of her strength and durability.

In like manner, our national symbol must be sufficiently strong to rise above insult. To surround the flag with legal protection granted to no other object is to tacitly admit its weakness and vulnerability and to concede that without the force of law and the threat of prosecution it could not endure the wounds of insult.

In contrast, to ignore those who would defile the flag is to prove that it is impervious to their contempt. Our flag as our national symbol is indestructible. Long may she wave!

C. H. MC CREA SR.

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