Raising the Flag Protection Issue

* The movement to return to the American people the right to protect the flag is not about branding opponents as “unpatriotic” or wearing “patriotism on your sleeve,” as Jerry Hicks argued in his July 14 column (“Flag Burning May Be Stupid, but the Constitution Isn’t”).

Support for Senate Joint Resolution 40, a protection constitutional amendment that will come to a vote this summer, is about restoring a protective right of the American people that was upheld by five Supreme Court rulings prior to 1989. I wonder if Hicks would support the Supreme Court if it ruled in favor of the people, as it once did.

For more than 100 years, federal law and the laws of 48 states protected our flag from acts of physical desecration. There were no adverse effects on the 1st Amendment. The only reason a constitutional amendment is being sought is the Supreme Court in 1989 left such an amendment as the only recourse of the people.

In a 5-4 ruling, the court broadened 1st Amendment interpretation to a point that neither precedent nor the values of the American people support. Forty-nine state legislatures, including California’s, passed resolutions supporting the amendment in keeping with the will of the people.

The movement to restore flag protection is the people’s exercise of their 1st Amendment right to a redress of grievances and their Article V right to amend the Constitution. I’m proud of my 2.9-million-member American Legion and our 22 million partners in 126 Citizens Flag Alliance groups for supporting the will of the people. I invite Sen. Barbara Boxer to join her colleague, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, in support of SJR 40. My thanks to Tommy Lasorda, John Schneider and others who testified in support of the measure July 8 before the Senate Judiciary Committee.

ANTHONY G. JORDAN

Commander, American Legion

Indianapolis

* How refreshing to hear Jerry Hicks’ sane voice amid the rhetoric of the self-righteous superpatriots who would have a constitutional amendment criminalizing the desecration of the American flag.

While disrespect for the flag is abhorrent and tugs at the core of every American heart, it can never be illegal. To make it so countermands the ideals on which this nation was founded.

People who defile the flag should be looked at with disgust, treated with disdain and decried as ingrates. But locked up?

What’s next? Fifteen years in jail for not “properly” singing the national anthem at a sporting event? Ten years for not standing at full attention when the color guard marches in? Eight years for not covering your heart with your hand during the Pledge of Allegiance?

Perhaps it’s time we accepted the fact that there always will be idiotic people who do detestably idiotic things like flag burning. Then perhaps we can get on with the more pressing issues in our society.

SUE WILLIAMS

La Palma