Flag Quotes

Nat Hentoff (can't find this one online) writes a column about HJR 10, the Flag Desecration Amendment, that gathers three excellent quotes that express my view of the thing.

First, watching the House debates on C-SPAN, Hentoff hears Democrat Artur Davis of Alabama.

Opposing the amendment, he told of how his grandmother used to say to him that, even after the Supreme Court ruled in Brown v. Board of Education that segregation in public schools was unconstitutional, she would see, "riding through rural Alabama, crosses burning." But, added Congressman Davis, "Those burning crosses did nothing to slow the progress of justice. So, too, the people who would burn flags, like those who burnt crosses, have lost. Our values have been deep enough to withstand the worst ideas."

More pithy is this quote by Bobby Scott (D-Va.), speaking of anyone foolish enough to burn the flag:

"How ridiculous it is to protest the very symbol of his right to protest! We don't need protection from anyone who does that."

Finally, he cites March 1994 comments by Congressional Medal of Honor recipient Sen. Bob Kerrey, who lost a leg in the Vietnam war, during an earlier bout with an anti-flag-burning amendment:

"Real patriotism cannot be coerced. It must be a voluntary unselfish brave act to sacrifice for others. And when Americans feel coercion, especially from the government, they tend to rebel. So none of us should be surprised ... that one unintended consequence of enacting this law will be an increased occurrence of flag desecration."