The US Flag, the Grand Ole Flag, the Star Spangled Banner, the Red White and Blue, Stars and stripes and Old Glory are the numerous names given to our national flag. As a young American growing up in today’s society, I have found great pride in our flag. Sometimes, I will find myself looking at a tattered flag or a flag that has been displayed incorrectly and I find the need to want to fix it. I am a patriotic person, and I am sure proud of it.

One subject that has been instilled upon me when discussing about the freedom of speech is that burning the flag in protest is not illegal under the US Constitution. I cry every time I see someone in a protest burning the US flag. To me, only our enemies burn our national flag because it symbolizes the destruction of a great nation. To see our own citizens burn the flag is a whole different story. Our police are told to defend our right to burn the flag. Meanwhile, our soldiers are overseas fighting for the survival of our nation.

Law will say that burning the flag is a freedom of speech and that no one can interfere when someone is trying to do so. I think that is plain wrong and ignorant. Now, I am not referring to the proper way to dispose a tattered US flag. I encourage everyone who has an old flag to take it to their local American Legion or Boy Scouts Club so that they can properly dispose of the flag. Such are the rules of the US Flag Code.

We are a bitter nation that has removed the importance of the Pledge of Allegiance, the Star Spangled Banner and how to properly display the US Flag. We were not always like this, and it is a scary thing to live in a society where our own people are burning the flag that is intended to unite the states of America.

Burning the US flag should be 100 percent illegal and should be treated under the federal level. The US flag is a symbol of great pride. It has been raised during Iwo Jima, after 9/11, during WWII and displayed on our soldier’s arms. It is a flag of great history and one of great sorrow. The US flag has played a crucial involvement at the summer Olympics and the United Nations. Our flag has united all the states of our great nation in both celebration and in mourning. Our flag is what makes us great, and we have lost all meaning in its pride.

Our national bird is the bald eagle. It is a federal crime to own one, to kill one or to own their feathers (unless under specific permission). Even bald eagles who have been turned into a taxidermy must be registered and licensed to the appropriate people. It is also illegal to uproot both the national and state flowers. So why is it legal for the citizens of our great nation to burn the flag that represents our nation so proudly and great? The flag is not by definition a living being, but it represents all of the living beings of the US.

According to the US Flag Code, which represents all rules and regulations of displaying, honoring, retiring and saluting, our great flag burning the flag is illegal. Under Title 18 of the US Flag Code, it describes the penalties on the desecration of the US Flag. It states that, “Whoever knowingly mutilates, defaces, physically defiles, burns, maintains on the floor or ground, or tramples upon any flag of the United States shall be fined under this title or imprisoned for not more than one year, or both.”

How is it that written within the honor code of the US Flag that it clearly states that anyone who defiles the flag in such many will be penalized in such a manner, but our US Supreme Court has deemed it an act of freedom of speech? I feel it is ignorant.

In a US Supreme Court case of Texas v. Johnson a Democrat by the name of Gregory Lee Johnson burned an American flag outside of the 1984 Republican National Convention, which was in Dallas, Texas. Johnson, of course, argued that his actions were, “symbolic speech protected by the First Amendment."

On the issue of whether flag burning constitutes “symbolic speech” protected by the First Amendment, the majority of the court came to the ruling that such action is, indeed, protected under the First Amendment. The reason: it was not done in hate. The beauty to this cause is that everyone has the freedom of speech within America, but if you target a group and threaten them, then you have lost your freedom of speech and will be tried for a hate crime.

This case was brought about during an interesting time. It was an election season of Ronald Reagan the Republican and Walter Mondale the Democrat. The Supreme Court Justices during this time were Rehnquist (R), Brennan (D), White (D), Marshall (D), Blackmun (R), Stevens (R), O’Conner (R), Scalia (R), and Kennedy (R). At this time, 48 of the 50 states had laws stating that burning the US Flag was considered unlawful. The majority of America had agreed that this was deemed hate speech towards the nation. However, the Supreme Court came to the conclusion that the 48 of the 50 states had invalidated prohibitions on desecrating the American Flag.

The dissent of Justice Rehnquist stated the following:

“The American flag, then, throughout more than 200 years of our history, has come to be the visible symbol embodying our Nation. It does not represent the views of any particular political party, and it does not represent any particular political philosophy. The flag is not simply another 'idea' or 'point of view' competing for recognition in the marketplace of ideas. Millions and millions of Americans regard it with an almost mystical reverence regardless of what sort of social, political, or philosophical beliefs they may have. I cannot agree that the First Amendment invalidates the Act of Congress, and the laws of 48 of the 50 States, which make criminal the public burning of the flag.”

Justice Stevens’ took a different approach in his dissent saying that the US flag, "Is more than a proud symbol of the courage, the determination and the gifts of nature that transformed 13 fledgling Colonies into a world power. It is a symbol of freedom, of equal opportunity, of religious tolerance and of good will for other peoples who share our aspirations... The value of the flag as a symbol cannot be measured." Stevens concluded that, therefore, "The case has nothing to do with 'disagreeable ideas.' It involves disagreeable conduct that, in my opinion, diminishes the value of an important national asset," and that Johnson was punished only for the means by which he expressed his opinion, not the opinion itself.

Justice Stevens clearly stated that though we have the freedom of speech, we must be lawful on how we express that freedom of speech. There are a lot of Americans who take great pride in the American flag and do not want to see any harm to it. I have seen footage of people burning the flag or displaying it upside down and seeing a group of veterans snatch the flag from them. There are numerous examples where fights have broken out because of this conduct.

The US flag is a symbol of great pride and freedom. I feel that the flag has no place in protests where burning, stepping upon or displaying it with distaste are involved. Our nation must fix our perspective of our flag before we can even utter the word of being “united." America is sick, and how our citizens treat our own flag, which is meant to unite us as a nation, should be a great clue of how much jeopardy we are in as a nation.