Flag-Burning

Mike has a post in which he states that he doesn’t like flag-burning, but doesn’t think the Constitution should be amended to prohibit it.  I agree, and I also don’t even really think there should be any laws prohibiting flag-burning.

The Constitution is the closest thing to a "sacred" document in our country.  It was so well-conceived and well-crafted that it has stood virtually unchanged for two hundred years, graciously accepting relatively minor amendments when necessary (which was a designed-in feature) but never being radically altered.

The most American of American ideals is the belief that all people have natural rights, and that government exists to protect these rights.  That is the very reason we revolted against the crown in the first place: in the rest of history up to that point, "rights" were things granted to the people by the government and they could be (and were) taken away at any time at the whim of the government or the king.

That is why the US Constitution specifically states that human rights are pre-existing, that the government does not "grant" rights to us but merely recognizes and protects them, and that should the government ever fail to perform that duty, the people have the right to abolish the government and create a new one.

Viewed in that context it is not surprising that all the constitutional amendments ever passed either increase the government’s recognition of the people’s rights, or further limit the government’s own power over the people.

The only exception to this rule resulted in the only amendment ever to be repealed: the prohibition of alcohol.

A flag-burning amendment is even more ridiculous than the alcohol one.  At least a case can be made that alcohol is A Bad Thing, since thousands of innocent Americans die each year as the result of intoxicated drivers.  But because many people use alcohol responsibly, the government decided that outlawing it was in fact unconstitutional.  Flag-burning on the other hand hurts no one.

On the other other hand, American citizens who burn American flags must surely be the lowest form of non-intelligent life on the planet.  What is flag-burning except the most emphatic way to say "I hate America"?  And if that is the case, then WHY DON’T YOU FREAKING LEAVE, DIRTY HIPPIE??!?  Therefore I propose a law whereby the government must club flag-burners over the head and then ship them off to some third-world country like Iran or France, so that when they regain consciousness they will be free from the brutal oppression of the American government.