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Showing posts from July, 2006

Burn Your Own Flag, If You Want

by Casey Lartigue This article appeared on cato.org on August 1, 2001. The House voted 298-125 on July 17 for a one-sentence amendment to the U.S. Constitution: "The Congress shall have power to prohibit the physical desecration of the flag of the United States." Why did Congress stop there? The amendment needs to be expanded to read: "The Congress shall have power to prohibit the physical desecration of the flag of the United States that anyone in Congress happens to own. Anyone who burns a flag stolen from the home or office of a member of Congress shall be punished to the maximum extent of the law." In other words, hold flag burners to the same standard we hold people to when they burn property that is not their own: you burn it, you buy it. Congress needs to fight fire with fire by responding to the symbolic act of burning Old Glory with symbolic action of its own--each new Congress should p