Several years ago, when there was a proposal to ban flag desecration, I wrote an essay for a forgotten amateur 'zine with the above title. It was a serious essay with a preposterous question: Did Lance Kerwin's character in Salem's Lot desecrate the flag when he used a wooden flagpole to stake a vampire? The vampire promptly erupted into flames, burning the attached flag and eventually all immediate surroundings.
Unfortunately (or perhaps, fortunately) the essay is now long lost, as are most of my memories of it. But my beliefs remain the same.
1. Burning or any other desecration of the United States flag by a citizen of the United States is wrong.
2. Burning or any other desecration of the United States flag by a citizen of the United States is an inalienable right, the exercise of free expression, which is protected by the First Amendment.
3. To pass a law which forbids such flag desecration would be wrong.
Number 2 trumps number 1. Now, if some goofball tried to burn my flag, they would be guilty of vandalism, arson, criminal trespass, and no telling what else, and would be in serious trouble if they survived to be prosecuted after setting fire to something on my property. But if they want to go and buy themselves a flag just so they can burn it, that's their business. Prohibiting such activity would just be one more thing to make all of us a little less free. And there's plenty of that kind of thing going around already.
Just thought I should point that out.
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