Opposite Poles: Readers Raise More Burning Issues

The views expressed (about flag burning,) while they may certainly be defined as for or against the right to burn a flag, seem to me to miss the point.

Some 50 years ago, this nation approved an amendment to the Constitution prohibiting the sale and distribution of alcohol. The amendment was an attempt by all of us to legislate morality. The outcome was an enormous increase in crime, the growth of criminal groups involved not only in the sale and distribution of alcohol but also in a variety of wars between rival gangs over control of lucrative markets for alcohol and as the result of the sale of poisonous alcohol. In the end, the amendment was seen to be silly, and another amendment was required to repeal it. Alcohol consumption continues, and frequency of use appears to be cyclic, rising at times, subsiding at other times. Morality remained unaffected by legislation.

In more recent times, having failed to learn anything, we have approached another moral issue in a similar way. In the Reagan Administration, narcotics’ use was addressed with a slogan, “Just Say No!” In the Bush Administration, we find that we have gone to war against the drug market--real war in Panama and real war in the actions of federal, state, and local police authorities. We are again attempting to deal with moral issues through governmental intervention. And, again, it doesn’t appear to be working.

But the most absurd attempt to legislate morality revolves around flag burning. The issue is not the extent to which a flag--any flag--is a sacred symbol. Societies have burned sacred symbols for thousands of years. The issue isn’t even a question of constitutionally guaranteed rights of expression. Attacking symbols can be construed as a free speech issue only through a tortuous argument. The issue is one of morality. And the danger is that certain groups wish to define morality for all of us.

Let us attack moral issues on moral grounds. If flag burning offends enough people, those offended will teach their children not to do it, as they have taught their children not to drink alcohol, or smoke tobacco, or use drugs.

ROBERT B. KAPLAN

Rancho Palos Verdes