If a group of flag burners held large placards of American Flags, or perhaps Crumpled Wall Paper that looked just like American Flags, and set them on fire - that wouldn't be a crime under the proposed amendment.
But wouldn't the next step be to make it a crime?
Imagine you'd have a group of flag burners, burning a flag in front of a courthouse, or police station - the mayor, or chief of police would look weak unless he/she ordered dozens of cops with mace, and clubs, to beat their way into the crowd, hoping that someone will resist so that they can justify the brutality.
They'd finally, after breaking many noses, fingers, and heads, of the protestors reach the burning flag - only to find that it was just a pretend flag.
Certainly, this would cause some problems for the police, and govermental entities attempting to enforce the flag burning laws.
The call would be to protect the police, and civil leaders from lawsuits from those victims of police brutality, and false arrest, by passing additional laws forbidding such lawsuits, or making it a crime to even burn images of American Flags.
Now once we're at that point, where burning images of things is a crime were moving into a strange world indeed.
We're entering into the Twilight Zone - creating the type of society which the backers of the flag burning amendment want this nation to become?
The American Flag, at that point will have been turned into a graven image - a sacred idol - with all the attributes, and special treatment of a god.
Think! A man burning the Holy Bible on the one hand stays out of jail, because it is his right to do so under our constitution, but if he then picks up an American Flag, and burns it he goes to jail. There is no denying it, we will have deemed the American Flag to be a god!
Perhaps we could next create temples dedicated to the god of the American Flag. People would have to bow, put their hands on their hearts, and sing the National Anthem, when in proximity to the American Flag, or else risk being made a human sacrifice at the hands of the Priest of the Church of the Divine American Flag.
Photo: Free-Used & Not Mine
When will this debate be put to rest?
Disclaimer: I have never burned an american flag, and I have never seen an american flag set on flames except on television, or in photographs. Nor have I ever known anyone who has (as a form of political protest) set a flag on fire. I can not begin to understand why any american, with our rights to protest in other ways would chose to burn an american flag. It seems to make no sense to me at all why a protestor would burn the american flag because it places the most powerful of political symbols outside of their embrace - essentially, forever.
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