Tossup

Measure to Outlaw Flag Burning Advances in Senate
Report: Michael Jackson to Be Father of Quadruplets

I'm trying to decide which of these two prospects is more frightening: an amendment to the U.S. Constitution that directly contradicts the First Amendment notion of free speech or the idea that Michael Jackson will have four more children to add to the three he's already screwing up for a lifetime.

I suppose it's got to be the amendment, if only because it has the potential to do harm to so many more people. We can all turn a blind eye to the tabloid coverage of the teeming Jackson brood as they grow older and inevitably have all manner of twisted, TV-newsmagazine-worthy exploits. It's a lot harder to ignore the fact that a terrible blow against liberty has been struck.

We do not prohibit dissent in this country. It makes us stronger, it makes us better, and it makes us who we are. Banning flag burning should not be done in part because there's no rational basis for doing so, but also because such a ban violates an important principle of this nation: that we have the right to do what we will to express our views, political and otherwise, as long as we do not endanger others in doing so. Burning a flag in a demonstration is no more dangerous to anyone else than a campfire; unless two-thirds of Congress also wishes to ban those (in which case we should all start plotting a move to Canada, because things have gotten seriously out of control), they must admit that they're not up for banning burning the flag because they hope to save lives. They want to protect a symbol from desecration.

They've got the wrong symbol. The liberty enshrined in our Constitution is a symbol not only to Americans but to all the world of the freedom that all men and women ought to have. To interfere with that freedom, even for such a well-meaning reason as to protect the flag under which millions have suffered and died for that freedom, is to put a black mark on the Constitution and on the nation.

To learn more about the amendment and why we don't need it--and to send a free message to your Senators--visit here.