The American Spectator

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(Page 6 of 11)

3) Given its omnipresence, how do we decide what's desecration? If I throw away the little toothpick flag in my drink, is that desecration? Protocol demands that any flag that has been soiled by the earth be burned. That'll have to change won't it?

p>4) Flag burning in America is not exactly a common occurrence. Make it illegal and it will be. br> -- Bryan Duffey br> Rochester, New Hampshire /p> p> I read Ben Stein's article on why flag burning should be prohibited. The argument is persuasive from a "fair-is-fair" perspective, so much so that this rationale has been discussed heatedly on talk radio all weekend. br> In an ideal world, these arguments would hold sway, and free speech would be either much less limited than it is or flag burning would take its place alongside cross burning and other legally defined "hate speech." /p>

There have been other arguments and concerns put forth to prohibit flag burning, especially political ones -- States' rights and others -- but I don't think these kinds of consideration animate anyone except the experts.

Instead, the average person responds differently to flag burning than cross burning for more immediate, personal reasons.

Cross burning, swastika painting, child pornography and anti-homosexual speech targets individuals, or least easily identifiable minority groups or children. These individuals, with a lesser ability to defend themselves against violence and discrimination, have historically been the true victims of violent criminal attacks from the perpetrators or consumers of this "hate speech" .

Lynching, pogroms, attacks on gay bars -- all these occurred not uncommonly in the near past. That is very different from the (non-existent) sequelae of a few hippies torching a flag at a dumb demonstration. The United States or its majority citizens (i.e., Caucasians, Christians, and heterosexuals, respectively) are not threatened personally by such behavior, misguided and puerile as it is.

These days, of course, and only the most strident of the political left would disagree, these minority groups have largely gained their freedom from persecution in this country (I am not arguing this as 100% freedom but mostly at the least, and child pornography seems to have grown in conjunction with the cultural changes wrought by the "counterculture" of the 1960s). What role did laws preventing hate speech and other discriminatory acts play in our cultural evolution? Or, more importantly, how many serious and/or violent attacks (or job loss or failures to buy a house) on these individuals have been prevented because of these and similar laws and the debate and discussion the nation went through during their drafting and passage? I don't know but I must imagine that they played a very significant role. If you were one of these groups, wouldn't you feel queasy at the thought of possible reversal of some of these legal or civil protections? I would say that Jews in France likely feel this way. It certainly explains for me the anxiety of the black community during reported episodes of the burning of black churches during the Clinton years.

p>I realize that political issues play large here, and that these issues get recirculated as strategies to paint the other guy as something the painters think will work against the painted. Political strategy is not my strength but I conclude that Republicans need to go beyond the tactics of the Democrats -- don't write long articles or spend hours on the radio equating the flag-revering citizen as a victim of (reverse) racial/religious politics -- and acknowledge the reasons why minority protections still need reinforcing. Don't let conservatives be targeted as deniers or minimizers of the horrible insults black Americans and homosexuals have suffered in our history. Instead, emphasize our understanding of this history, as the starting point for new initiatives to correct the failures of some of these anti-discrimination policies, and concentrate on arguing how the real effect of some of them, however well-meaning, has been shown to have caused harm to these minority groups and thus society overall.

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