Protect speech and flag

As we approach the 4th of July holiday, homes and businesses will be displaying the flag, symbol of all that is right with America. In the Senate, Joint Resolution 12, the “Flag Desecration Amendment” is being debated with the intent of constitutionally prohibiting the desecration of our flag.

In our zeal to show our patriotism and pride in America, it seems that we are giving more attention to the symbol (our flag), than we are giving to the principles for which it stands.

I love my country and my flag. I am upset when I see the flag flown after dark without being lit, flown in the rain, or flown from a car until it becomes nothing but a tattered rag. It is my fear that, when the flag has become a rag, it will just be thrown away like an old decoration instead of being burned honorably. I am even more bothered when one would criminalize an expression of free speech (desecration of the flag) just to prove how “patriotic” one is.

The First Amendment to our Constitution prohibits restricting freedom of speech. This includes more than just what we want to hear. It also includes offensive forms of speech and expression. If today the government says that one can’t burn a flag one bought with one’s own money to express criticism of the way our government is run, then tomorrow the government may say that one can’t express criticism of the government at all. Then we don’t have freedom, we have a dictatorship.

The flag is not a decoration. It is a symbol of what is good in this country. Please do not fly the flag unless you plan to treat it honorably, and encourage our senators to not give up the freedoms that make the United States great, just to protect a symbol.

Fred M. Griffith

Houlton