Letter to urge U.S. Senator to support the Flag Protection Amendment
JULY 30, 1998
The
Honorable Senator Carol Moseley-Braun
United
States Senate
Washington,
DC 20510
Dear
Senator Moseley-Braun:
This letter is to urge you to support the flag protection amendment (S. J. Res. 40). It is a written follow up to my phone call to your office earlier today.
As a Vietnam Veteran who did his duty to support our country and its policies, I have very strong feelings about the need for our country to protect its national symbol from desecration. A number of my ancestors and personal friends gave their lives because they believed in this country and the ideals for which it stands. My friends and I fought in Vietnam because our country called us to do so. We fought in Vietnam because we believed that the freedom we possess, and the freedom of others around the world, is worth defending with our very lives. I am sure that the reasons that my two Revolutionary War ancestors stood as patriots and fought were not much different than the reasons for which I went, voluntarily, to Vietnam.
Our American Flag is the symbolic embodiment of freedom. Both to we citizens of the United States of America, and to the world, which sees it as a symbolic hope for their own freedom. How can we, in good conscience, not hold as sacred that which has been purchased by the blood of so many across the years of our existence?
I support freedom of speech, and I was am prepared to defend, to the death, the right of others to voice opinions contrary to my most cherished beliefs. But, I must draw the line short of allowing that expression to include desecration of the Flag of Our Country. To stand by and permit persons, for whatever reason or point that they are trying to make, to desecrate that which itself symbolizes their right to make protest statements, would be like lighting the match myself.
America is not perfect, and their are things in our history that are not honorable or just. There have been numerous instances of gross inhumanity toward others. There are things which still need to be addressed. Yet, America is amongst the brightest and best lights, if not the brightest and best light, the world has ever seen when it comes to protecting and fostering freedom and that which is noble and true and good.
Just as freedom of speech does not include the right to stand and falsely shout "FIRE!" in a crowd of people, freedom of speech cannot be allowed to include a right to desecrate the very symbol of that freedom, our National Flag. To do so it to make it a mockery. To do so would be shear folly, for it would say that we are willing to allow the destruction of the very thing we are willing to give our lives to preserve, our freedom. If we allow the destruction of the symbol, can willingness to allow destruction of the reality it stands for be far behind?
Freedom is not now, has never been, and can never be the unbounded ability to do whatever one pleases. There must be limits. Nature itself has limits. Exceed them in any of a number of ways and destruction or disintegration follows. So it is with spiritual concepts such as freedom. There are limits in the spiritual realm, also. If we refuse to recognize and preserve those limits, our destruction or disintegration will surely follow.
So, I, as
both a private citizen, and as the current Commander of the
Bolingbrook, Illinois, American Legion Post 1288 urge you, a fellow
beneficiary of the freedoms so many fought and died for, a Senator of
the United States, who swore to uphold and defend another embodiment
of our great country, the Constitution of the United States, urge you
to support the Flag Protection Amendment (S. J. Res. 40).
Sincerely,
MELVIN W. HANSEN