STOP TINKERING WITH THE BILL OF RIGHTS
STOP TINKERING WITH THE BILL OF RIGHTS
by
Keith Taylor
posted June 11, 1999
The following was published in the Navy Times in the May 31, 1999 issue.
Oh for Pete’s sake they’re at it again! About the time things calm down in Washington, up pops congress with another attempt to amend the Bill of Rights.
For the third time in seven years a bill to exempt flag burning from the protection of the first amendment is working its way through congress. This one passed the House and has cleared committee in the Senate. Looks like it’ll make it through the whole body too. If it does, it’ll be up to the various states for ratification; Thirty-eight states have to approve it before it becomes law. This question may be around for a while.
But is it the important question of the day? Seems to be. The president’s peccadilloes are no longer a matter for impeachment. Congress has authorized billions to wage a war while going on record saying that the war shouldn’t be fought in the first place. Social Security will not go broke this year and when it does it’ll be some else’s problem.
With mundane things like impeachment and war out of the way and impending financial calamity delayed, congress is busy legislating patriotism. Gee I thought patriotism was something that the government ought to earn, not demand.
Some spoilsports, like me, even wonder where the problem is. Desecration of our national symbol makes my blood boil, but does no physical harm to me or anybody else. Furthermore, the chances of even seeing such a thing are slim. According to the Sacramento Bee, there were 45 recorded cases of flag burning between 1777 and 1989. That works out to one about once every five years. Still that’s enough to make some want to make the first change to a document every bit as revered as the flag itself. To date not one word has been changed in the first ten amendments. Not even a comma!
As expected the rhetoric is flying. The sponsor of the bill, Randy "Duke" Cunningham ® San Diego, wrote, "I strongly support protecting the American flag from destruction. Our soldiers fought to defend the flag and all that it stands for....It is a symbol of all that makes this Country great and a tribute to all the men and women that fought and died so we can remain free."
Certainly nobody could doubt the sincerity of the Duke. He’s a highly decorated veteran and was once the top dog of the Top Gun school for Navy fighter pilots. Further his web site contains an impressive salute to the constitution, including the Bill of Rights he wants to tinker with.
Former Ohio Senator John Glenn certainly seemed to agree with him. The first American to orbit the earth testified before his former colleagues: ". . .I have so little patience, and even less sympathy, for those pathetic and insensitive few who would demean and defile our nation's greatest symbol of sacrifice. They deserve harsh censure. . ."
But, then Glenn added, "I believe that the members of this Committee have a special responsibility to recognize that it would be a hollow victory indeed if we preserved the symbol of our freedoms by chipping away at those fundamental freedoms themselves. Let the flag fully represent all the freedoms spelled out in the Bill of Rights, not a partial, watered-down version that alters its protections."
Pro amendment Senator Orrin Hatch (R) of Utah got the kids involved with, "We are
experiencing a value malaise in this country, and the negative impact falls hardest on our
children. . . Without a strong value system, our children cannot distinguish good from bad
or right from wrong."
I’ll buy protecting the kids. That’s for sure. I’m the grandfather of some wonderful ones. I’ll go even further and urge the Senator to ask what’ll harm the kids more, protecting a symbol or chipping away some of the basic promises made some 130 years ago.
Most of the public agrees—up to a point. A recent poll was conducted by The Center for Survey Research and Analysis at the University of Connecticut for The Freedom Forum, a first amendment watchdog. According to Ken Dautrich, who directed the poll, "Nearly nine in 10 agree that once any restriction is placed on a freedom, it becomes much easier to place further restrictions, and yet they are willing to ignore the peril. . ."
Not me. I do not want the constitution amended just to make me feel good, or regulate my body temperature.
As always some of the most poignant statements come from newspaper’s letters to the editor. Here are some excerpts from one sent by Paul A Hilding to the San Diego Union-Tribune a couple years ago:
The greatest danger to the American flag is not the disrespect shown by a handful of radicals who have burned it in the last decade, but by the politicians in Washington who seem intent on regulating every aspect of our behavior, in this case by wrapping themselves in the flag. . . Americans cherish their flag, precisely because they are not forced to honor it.
Indeed! Let us remember that some things are important; others are symbols and we ought to learn to tell the difference.
Email Dipsey Dumpster
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johneeo@rcn.com
