Old Warrior Still Willing to Fight to Protect Old Glory

Months ago I told Tom Harrelson, a retired Air Force chief master sergeant who lives in Orange, that I’d give him the floor someday to talk about one of his favorite subjects. Today is the day and, what a coincidence, tomorrow is the Fourth of July.

I first ran into Harrelson last year, when the issue arose over whether flag burning is protected speech. To Harrelson, it most assuredly is not. The U.S. Supreme Court disagrees with him, and Congress also passed up the chance last year to amend the Constitution to make flag desecration illegal.

All of which is a mystery to Harrelson. Why would burning the flag be acceptable behavior, he wants to know.

Harrelson, 75, is a patriot. You could call him a superpatriot, and I don’t think he’d mind. He grew up in western Pennsylvania and, like a lot of people in this country, was imbued early on with a love of country that became as much gut instinct as anything his head told him to think.

As with most things, I’m of two minds (or is it of two half-minds?) on the flag-desecration subject. Deep down, I’m the patriotic type who respects the flag and doesn’t just think of it as a piece of cloth flapping in the wind. That respect was implanted in me when, as a young boy, my dad took me to a football game. I was eating an apple and midway through the national anthem I took a chomp out of it that would have made Trigger proud. Father proceeded to backhand the apple from my mouth, knocking it several rows down, leaving me with nothing but a rekindled sense of Old Glory’s importance in our lives.

Years later, I never applauded others in my age group who delighted in burning the flag to protest the Vietnam War. That burned me, but not to the extent that I would rush into the crowd to stop them and risk getting my head torn off. Oh, the dilemmas of the sunshine soldier.

Harrelson has no such ambivalence. “I’ve been involved in this issue for quite some time,” he said this week. “When they talk about free expression in the Bill of Rights, it doesn’t say ‘expression,’ it says ‘free speech.’ ”

The act of speech, Harrelson says, is quite precisely defined in any dictionary. It involved forming words with tongue and mouth. “I don’t think the framers of the Constitution had any idea that anyone would ever burn the flag,” he says. “I’m not happy about everything that government does, and I’m sure a lot of people aren’t, but I wouldn’t hurt anyone or burn the flag.”

Harrelson has no problems with people expressing displeasure with the government or, for that matter, the flag. But there are limits. “The burning or desecration of the flag is a disservice to the U.S. citizens. Our flag represents what this country stands for. Our history is wound up in the flag.”

Harrelson, who has traced his ancestry to Revolutionary War combatants, was a waist gunner in World War II who says he flew 32 combat missions. At 50, he volunteered to go to Vietnam and served as combat support.

“Back where I come from, people are pretty respectful of the flag, but out here when you have so many different customs and cultures, when you go to ballgames and they play the national anthem, you see people slouching and looking around. I put my hand over my heart and remove my hat. That’s my respect for this country.”

I know what he means. I’m not the hand-over-the-heart type, but I always remove my hat and put that over my heart. I hate it when some dope in the next row is jawing during the anthem, but it wouldn’t occur to me to tell him to be quiet. I’ll bet Harrelson does.

He was among those who was perturbed a few months ago when Saddleback College student government leaders dropped the Pledge of Allegiance from their meetings, claiming that various groups were offended by it. Student leaders have said they will reinstate the Pledge for the coming school year.

Dissing the Pledge, of course, is a far cry from flag-burning, and Harrelson accepts anyone’s right not to say the Pledge. “They have the right not to say it, and I have the right not to respect them for not saying it,” he says.

On that, we can all agree.

Now, as to whether people should be allowed to burn the flag with impunity . . .

Tomorrow is the country’s 220th birthday. Ask me some other time.

Dana Parsons’ column appears Wednesday, Friday and Sunday. Readers may reach Parsons by writing to him at the Times Orange County Edition, 1375 Sunflower Ave., Costa Mesa, CA 92626, or calling (714) 966-7821.