Dear America's Toughest Sheriff

Flag Burning as Iconoclasm

“One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all,” were the words we would repeat from our muscle memory. We had no idea what we were pledging allegiance to, less what the words pledge and allegiance even meant. Yet we pledged ourselves day in and out before this flag. The flag detail ceremony is highly prized by many Americans. They stand tall and proud as it is being raised and lowered. To these Americans, the flag represents their country, their god, and above all, their freedom. But what freedom is exactly held sacred beneath this flying flag?
There are several laws governing the display of a flag. If broken, they are punishable and can even amount to jail time. In the case of William B. Mummford, the removal of the flag was death(1). The cost of dropping the flag is that it must be burned. Many protestors have used flag burning in demonstration. I feel this is stating that America is falling and we will burn if we do not take action. However, the Citizens of Flag Alliance does not agree my feelings. The alliance states that the flag represents our unity and that our system of democracy, constitutional rights and freedoms are all unified by our flag. “It is our ‘trademark’.” Corporate America. I’m reminded by a scene from Chuck Palahniuk’s book Fight Club where the members of Project: Mayhem are set on a quest to kill two birds with one stone by destroying a piece of corporate art and a franchise coffee shop.
Even though burning the flag is seen to be unjustly by many, the case has been brought up all often in the past few decades. In 1989, Texas man named Gregory Johnson was tried and convicted for burning the U.S. flag in protest of the reelection of President Reagan(3). Even though there is no federal Supreme Court decision of flag burning as being unlawful, there are certain fire and peace codes the courts may arrest you for. The court’s decision was later appealed as there was no evidence that Johnson had actually endangered any one’s wellbeing(4).
I believe that as a symbol of freedom, we should be free to display the American flag in any way we choose. If that means flying it over a lighted path, draping from our door, modeling it into clothing, or laying it ablaze on the sidewalk while urinating on it to put it out, then so be it. Anti-flag burning members argue that our forefathers died for that flag, but I believe they could not die for something as vain as a flag. It was what the flag represented; our freedom to speak and be heard. To express ourselves in the manner that best displays our feelings and emotions; that and not having to pay taxes.