Proposed Anti-Flag-Burning Amendment

Re “Protecting a Symbol of ‘Secular Sacredness,’ ” Commentary, Oct. 22: I doubt anyone has any illusions about the upcoming anti-flag-burning amendment to the Constitution becoming law. As so many politically aspiring congressmen have realized, what right-minded American could be in favor of burning the American flag, yes?

So I read Adrian Cronauer’s defense of this travesty hoping to hear something more than tepid appeals to my patriotism. His invocation of this “secular sacredness” business left me bitterly disappointed.

Sorry--”secular sacredness” or not, the flag is still just a symbol. It will fly exactly the same over a preschool or a police state. And those soldiers whose memory Cronauer appropriates? They didn’t die for a symbol. They died for the nation that symbol does--or at least used to--represent.

What sort of place does that flag symbolize now? We have given up our 4th Amendment rights against illegal searches in the name of the war on drugs. We’ve given up our right to assemble to fight the war on gangs. Now we’re giving away our 1st Amendment right to free speech, ironically, to protect a symbol of that freedom.

RICHARD WADHOLM

Sylmar

Kudos to Cronauer. Our flag is indeed a unique symbol representing unity among diverse ideologies. What other symbol can fly proudly over the ACLU as well as the NRA and still maintain its honor and dignity? America’s vision is built on God-given rights and individual freedom. Ours is a sacred cause. Should not our symbol be as much?

MICHAEL TRUJILLO

La Crescenta

Cronauer claims he’s met people who risked their lives in defense of the American flag. These meetings must have been held in mental institutions; only an idiot would risk his life to save a flag. Perhaps what these people were really defending was freedom.

Images on television of “students” burning the American flag make me sick and angry. If they didn’t, flag-burning wouldn’t be very effective. However, nobody’s freedom has ever been jeopardized by a flag being burned, whereas plenty of people have had their freedom taken by arrogant men trying to impose their view of the “right” way to behave.

Feel free to not burn any flags, Adrian. And please stop trying to fine-tune my liberties to agree with your view of the world.

TOM DE LUCA

Manhattan Beach

It is outrageous that one split second of government time should be spent on behalf of a flag amendment. Our brave soldiers have not fought and died for a piece of cloth, however sacred its symbolism, but for the freedom and justice we, at our best, have to offer. In addition to causing endless legal mischief about what is art and what is desecration, such a constitutional amendment will only clear the stage for those loonies who love to tweak the likes of Cronauer and in the process cause pain to those who rightly honor the banner.

LOREN WOODSON

Santa Monica