Thank God! Adding a constitutional amendment to ban a particular type of speech really gives me the heebie jeebies. The debate was ridiculous too. One Senator (from Alabama I think) made the comment that we wouldn’t want the Washington monument or the capital building defaced either, so why not protect the flag? Umm, because there’s more than one flag? Seriously, that was the level of debate in the Senate for those for the amendment.
What really makes me worry is that banning the burning of a flag seems like a pretty arbitrary thing to me. I really don’t understand all the angst over this. No one is asking anyone to like the act. Maybe I’m a little out of touch, but I feel like flying the confederate flag is much more offensive than burning the current one. Not that I’d advocate the banning of that or anything, but people’s priorities seem a bit out of whack. Thankfully, the measure doesn’t look as though it’s going to get through the senate, we won’t have to worry about this until next year…
Isaac