Does the Constitution grant us the right to desecrate the flag of the United States by publicly burning it?

Our forefathers would have dealt harshly with anyone who committed such an act—from pouring hot tar over them, and covering them with feathers—to burning their home or business, and even hanging them.

We, however, are a more merciful people. We are more open minded, and more politically correct, and our Supreme Court has interpreted our Constitution to grant people that “right,” as a matter of free speech.

The flag is a symbol of our nation, our homeland. Those who are privileged to be born here, as well as those immigrants who seek citizenship, should all recognize the fact that they take on certain responsibilities with citizenship.

One of those responsibilities is to support their flag, and the nation it symbolizes.

Of course, the United States is not “perfect.” No nation has ever been perfect—and because all people are imperfect—no nation will ever be perfect.  But as  a nation, the United States of America is far superior to any nation that preceded us, and some continue to pray and labor to improve this land. That’s why we still have the ballot box, and the electoral college (which protects minorities from being overwhelmed as they would be in a conventional, “one person, one vote” democracy).

Here’s what most people fail to understand: Our country, our “home land,” is in many ways like our homes. There are very few homes and families across America that are “perfect.” In fact, the entertainment industry goes to great lengths to legitimize and glorify the dis-functional family and the aberrant home.

The true home is more than a house. The ideal home is a place where family members should feel a sense of comfort, safety, and security that they can never experience outside its doors. Few families achieve that ideal, but it’s worth laboring toward.

And that’s the way our nation should be. Even though it is not perfect, it is still our home, the place in which we should all experience comfort, safety, and security. Or, as our founding fathers wrote, the right to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” We are not perfect, but men and women of good will are continually working toward that goal.

Your home is akin to our nation, and your house might be said to be akin to the flag that represents our nation. If someone in your family becomes angry at another member of your family—or with some act or practice with which they disagree, whether right or wrong—they do not have the right to burn your house down.

Likewise, if one American is angry at another American, or at a group of Americans, because of what they say or do, they do not have the right to harm that person. That undercuts the other person’s rights, it undercuts the rule of law, and it undercuts our country.

Burning our flag doesn’t focus on the wrongs that might exist. Burning our flag focuses on our nation. It’s like burning the institutions of freedom, it’s like bringing down the entire nation. To put it another way, it’s like burning our own homes. It is an attack on our own country, and an insult to those who suffered and died to bring us this far.

Those who burn our flag may think they are effectively registering a complaint again some repugnant belief or practice. But what they are really doing is symbolically burning the very institution which provides them the platform on which they are privileged to stand in order to complain.

As long as our country survives as a democratic-republic, you will have the freedom to speak out, to change the course we take. But those who burn the flag are doing away with that platform. They are burning their own home land. They are assisting our enemies to destroy America itself.

We, the people have the right to gather peacefully, to demonstrate against things with which we disagree. We have the right to petition, to compete in the political arena, to alter the laws. We still have recourse to some of the media and to the courts.

We should laugh at the criticism of people in nations from which our citizens fled because of their laws, beliefs, and practices. We should not undercut our own strength. We should not welcome people here who wish to make our country become like the countries from which they fled. We must not burn our own house down.

If that is the intention of those who burn our flag, then we need to ask ourselves whether they are destroying the foundations of freedom which we hold dear.

Are they disloyal, and even treasonous? If so, have they have abrogated their rights as citizens of a free and open society? Do they have any part or place in “the land of the free and the home of the brave?