Us Flag A Symbol Worth Protection Essay

Us Flag: A Symbol Worth Protection Essay, Research Paper

The Flag of the United States of America:

A Symbol that Requires Protection

Most people have at one point in their lives looked up at the American flag waving in the breeze on a light, clear day and thought about how lucky they are to live in the country that lies beneath that flag. And when you see those “broad stripes and bright stars” waving on the bow of one of our countries noble naval ships, you can.t help but feel proud of all those who have come before you and given their lives so that our lives might be better. And most all of us have also seen footage of that glorious flag being burned by those who are so pompous and arrogant that they feel they have the right to spit in the face of this great nation. Even though I believe that those people have the right to say and show what they believe in peaceful rallies, but burning the Flag of this great nation violent, wrong and should not be allowed to happen.

The Flag is the ultimate symbol of our country, democracy, and of all the people who have sacrificed their lives so that our freedom may be protected. Anyone who serves our country (policeman, military members, and political figures) and passes away, has the Flag of our country draped over their casket with the union at the head of the casket, over their left shoulder. During the funeral service, the Flag is folded and presented to the wife or mother of the deceased. Every single time the American Flag is burned in protest, the patriotism and pride of the person under that Flag is violated. Worst of all, the families. memories of their son, daughter, mother, father, husband, or wife who served our country is burned with it. Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King Jr., John F. Kennedy, all these people and thousands more have been buried in this manner and are disgraced every time fire is put to the Flag.

Not only does burning the Flag disgrace our country.s hero.s memories, it also disgraces the reason that they died and what they died for. A person being buried in this traditional fashion usually died because they were protecting our country, either from foreign enemies such as in the World Wars, or domestic enemies such as slavery and racism. These people gave their lives so that we (including those who burn flags) could live in a free country. By burning the flag, they show the ultimate ingratitude for those lives and spit in the face of the freedom and democracy they died for. Because of these brave people.s sacrifices, the United States of America is a free country with the highest standard of living in the world. What if our soldiers hadn.t fought Germany and Japan and instead just protested what the other countries were doing. Two racist governments would now cover most of the world and eventually would attack the US at home. We owe our forefathers and all those who came after them a huge debt of gratitude, and we should therefore not burn the very symbol of all they did for us.

After considering all this, many people still believe that they have the right to burn the Flag so that they may have their voices heard, and that that right is protected under the First Amendment of the Constitution. There are two major problems with this belief, though. First, by burning the Flag, you make so many people so angry that they won.t listen no matter what the protesters are saying. This is because they know that they don.t like what the protesters are doing and therefore don.t want to have anything to do with what the protesters are saying. Second, if you read the first amendment carefully, you can see that it actually doesn.t give the right to people to burn the Flag. What the First Amendment actually says is, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for redress of grievances.” I completely agree with what the First Amendment says because it is very important for the people of this country, or any country, to be able to protest against something the government may be doing wrong. By having that right, the people can have their views heard and can change unfair laws and policies. This freedom to voice your opinions does not include the burning of the American Flag, however. The amendment specifically says, “or the right of the people to peaceably assemble.” Fire is the violent decomposition of molecules into more simple elements and can hardly be considered peaceful. And besides what fire actually does, it also has very violent connotations in our society. In our culture red is usually associated with evil which originally derived from the destructiveness of fire which is red. And in colonial America, towns such as Salem, Massachusetts would burn witches at the stake because they were supposedly evil. The simple fact is that fire is destructive and cannot be considered peaceful, but this applies only to assemblies. If that was all the First Amendment said, it could be interpreted that the individual could burn the Flag if the wished because there is no reference to the individual. But the First Amendment goes on to say, “and to petition the Government for redress of grievances.” Here, both the individual and the group are refereed to since both can petition the Government. The defi