FLAG DESECRATION AMENDMENT--Continued -- (Senate - June 27, 2006)
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Mr. JOHNSON. Mr. President, today I share with my colleagues my thoughts on S.J. Res. 12 to amend the Constitution of the United States to prohibit the physical desecration of the flag of the United States. There are good, thoughtful, and patriotic Americans on both sides of this contentious issue. I have great respect for the views of many that amendment would constitute an unnecessary and harmful interference with the first amendment guarantees of free speech. Nonetheless, I am a supporter of S.J Res. 12. For most of America's history, flag desecration has been illegal under State law and local ordinances. This constitutional amendment allows the return of the law to its former state, and I support this amendment to ensure those protections.
Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, whether flying on an aircraft carrier, hanging in one of our Embassies, or worn as a patch on a soldier's uniform, the American flag stands for freedom.
The vast majority of Americans honor the flag, and rightly so. Some would go so far as to amend the Constitution to protect the flag against those who would burn it. While I share and admire their patriotism, weakening the first amendment, even for the noble purpose of protecting the flag, is not a position I can support.
Make no mistake I treasure the Stars and Stripes as much as any American. One of my most prized possessions is the flag which honored my father's military service in World War II. It was draped upon his coffin after his death from cancer in 1990. He fought in the European theater to protect the freedoms that flag represents, and it now rests proudly on the mantle in my Senate office.
I do not have any sympathy for any who would dare desecrate the flag. They demean the service of millions of Americans, including my father and the brave men and women currently fighting the war on terror. They deserve rebuke and condemnation.
There may be no greater symbol of freedom than the flag. Its powerful symbolism is precisely why miscreants choose to desecrate it to make their point. They intend to convey a powerful message, and they have succeeded, because we find their message so disgusting that proponents of S.J. Res. 12 seek to ban their message. But freedom of speech means nothing unless people are allowed to express views that are offensive and repugnant to others.
Over 60 years ago, Justice Jackson noted how much the flag means to all Americans, and at the same time argued that the principles of liberty require us to allow others to view the flag differently than we see it ourselves. He wrote that:
The case is made difficult not because the principles of its decision are obscure but because the flag involved is our own ..... But freedom to differ is not limited to things that do not matter much. That would be a mere shadow of freedom.
Since our founding, we have watched other nations silence dissent, while America welcomed it--and America has prevailed. In fact, the Senate has seen free and open debate this week about the flag resolution. Those who support the resolution have made their best arguments to try to convince those who disagree. Regardless of the outcome of the vote on this measure, this week's debate is good for democracy and good for America.
Free and open debate is also the correct approach to use in dealing with those who desecrate the flag. The Supreme Court has recognized that ``[t]he way to preserve the flag's special role is not to punish those who feel differently about these matters. It is to persuade them that they are wrong.''
Flag burning is an abominable act. We are lucky to live in a country where the overwhelming majority of people not only reject it, but honor the American flag and the freedoms it stands for. These freedoms are America's source of strength, whether embodied in the first amendment's protection of speech, or the second amendment's protection of the right to bear arms, or the fifth amendment's protection of private property, or in any other provision of our enduring Constitution.
Ultimately, people who use the flag to convey a message of protest pose little harm to our country. But weakening our first amendment freedoms might.
Our Founding Fathers wrote the first amendment because they believed that, even with all the excesses and offenses that freedom of speech would undoubtedly allow, truth and reason would triumph in the end. And they believed the answer to offensive speech was not to regulate it, but to counter it with more speech, and in so doing, let the truth prevail in the marketplace of ideas.
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