Quote Originally Posted by cruscott35
Flag burning I'm a little less enthused about. It's kind of a treasonous act, IMO...
I disagree. I think of treason as being about overthrowing the government. I think about most acts of flag burning as simple protest.

The reason that flag burning requires a constitutional amendment is because, according to the Supreme Court, flag burning is protected speech under the 1st Amendment. Specifically: "If there is a bedrock principle underlying the First Amendment, it is that the government may not prohibit the expression of an idea simply because society finds the idea itself offensive or disagreeable."

To me, the real questions are:

1) Why are we talking about flag burning? Aren't there more important things for our legislators to be doing? Is there a flag burning epidemic? Wouldn't making such an amendment just cause more people around the world to burn our flag than they would otherwise? I just don't get it at all.

2) What makes flag burning any different than other iconography that is routinely abused? I just saw a kid put quarters and a penny in a metal pressing gizmo and his loose change molded into a medallion of a fish. I routinely hear our national anthem massacred by a public who'd rather sing America The Beautiful.