Monday, June 23, 2003

Flag Desecration

NOTE: The following blog was submitted to the Denver Post as a Guest Commentary on June 23, 2003.  It was rejected on June 25, 2003.

The United States House of Representatives recently passed a proposed Constitutional amendment that will protect the flag from burning and other forms of desecration.  In these patriotic times, there is a good chance that the Senate and 38 states will ratify the amendment and make illegal to desecrate the flag.  It’s about time.

I see desecration of our national symbol everywhere I go, and it’s not just activists protesting by burning the U.S. flag.  Flag desecration is far more pervasive than Constitutionally-protected free speech.

I have too often seen the U.S. flag being walked all over.  Flags are used to wipe the mud off of people’s shoes.  People are soiling flags by laying them out on grass, sand, and dirt, only to put the flag away again for later use.  Apparently people don’t realize that the U.S. flag is not supposed to touch the ground.  But it gets worse – I have seen people sitting and laying down on our national emblem.

Other U.S. flags are intentionally doused regularly with coffee or soda.  Others are covered with grease, or are intentionally spat upon.  I’ve seen the Stars and Stripes used as a napkin, then crumpled up, and thrown out of a car window to line the road as so much litter.

I’ve seen flags used as mere towels to mop up kitchen spills.  There have been flags that were cut up and wrapped around any number of objects only to be wadded up later and thrown into the garbage.

I have come across some flags that were defaced by grown adults drawing on them.  Others were left hanging on trees or were left out in the rain.  I’ve seen a few that were thrown around and used like toys, a few drenched in chemicals, and I’ve also seen a flag used to light a fire.  I’ve even seen the flag held in such disrepute by some people that they let their pets sleep on, chew, and scratch the American flag.

And the desecration that most offends me is when flags that are left outside to be covered in snow or rained on, to be covered in dead insects, and to be allowed to fade and fray.  Apparently these people were never taught how to properly treat the flag of the United States.

Flags are not supposed to be left out at night unless the flag is properly lit, and yet I regularly see flags flying after dark, unlit.  The flag isn’t supposed to be left out in “inclement weather” according to Section 8, title 4 of the US Flag Code.  Flags that have honorably served long enough to become faded and/or frayed are supposed to be honorably destroyed, yet I see frayed and faded flags every day.

So it’s about time that people stopped desecrating the United States flag.  After all, turning the flag into shoes and socks, welcome mats, beach towels, pillows, sheets, and blankets isn’t free, patriotic speech – it’s desecration.  So is putting the flag on drinking cups, plates, french fry containers, and napkins meant to be thrown away.  It’s disgraceful to print flags on dish and bath towels used to dry our dishes or our bodies, or to use the flag as mere wrapping paper or ribbon.  Is the flag so meaningless that we’ll let our pets lay on one?  When a person places a logo over the flag, uses a flag as a Christmas ornament, uses a flag-printed umbrella, plays with a flag-printed frisbee, hangs a flag air freshener in their car, or uses a flag-printed disposable cigarette lighter, the person is being disrespectful of the flag, not honoring it.

And all those car window stickers, bumper stickers, and antenna flags are being treated with utmost contempt every time they get rained on, snowed on, or get left outside after dark.  And let us not forget to properly destroy those flag stickers and antenna flags when they fade and fray.  The national emblem of the United States deserves no less.

Good luck removing them from your car first.

(For guidelines on proper flag etiquette, please click here or find a copy of Public Law 94-344, part of the US Flag Code.)