Flag burning.  Nothing engenders quite the same emotion as the topic of flag burning.

     I remember the first time I heard about flag burning.  I was about seven years old, and my second grade teacher was telling me to burn the flag.  Actually, she wasn’t saying it in so many words.  She handed me a little card with a list of rules on proper treatment of the flag.

     I remember don’t let it touch the ground, and don’t fly it at night, and keep it raised higher than any other flag.

     I’m sure there were others…but the one that stands out was that when the flag became tattered, or dirty, or for any reason was unable to continue to fly in dignity and honor, it was to be burned.

     The only proper and respectful way to dispose of a flag when it is no longer able to symbolize the great ideals of this country is to burn it.

     Huh.

     I’ve always assumed that was the symbolism behind flag burning…not a rejection of the ideals and values of America, but a graphic illustration of the belief of the protestors that the flag had been soiled due to abandonment of those ideals, and their judgment that it could no longer fly with honor until the transgression against our fundamental values had been corrected.

     Don’t get me wrong, I don’t like seeing the flag get burned.  It makes me sad, it makes me upset.  It’s supposed to.  That’s the point.  It’s also supposed to make us all sit up and take notice, and unfortunately, I have to make myself pay attention, because when I see the flag burned, it makes me want to turn away.

     Because it is easier to believe that everything is OK for everyone and everyone is happy and things are going along great.  A burning flag is a symbol that all is not well, and that’s not a message we want to hear…but whatever has someone doing it is probably something we should all at least take the time to look at.

     I’ve never viewed flag burning, at least when done by Americans, as a symbolic gesture of hate for this country or the flag.  I see disappointed idealism, disappointed love, and yes, even anger…but not hate.

     I realize that I was just a little kid when I formed this opinion, but after re-visiting it several times as an adult, that’s what I’m left with.

     There may be some protesters who would disagree with me.  They might say “I burn the flag, because I hate America”…but I haven’t heard any of them actually say that.

     I hear “no blood for oil”, or “repeal the patriot act”, or “protect our natural resources from corporate greed”…I hear “America isn’t what it’s supposed to be” but I don’t hear “I hate America.”

     Maybe I’m not listening hard enough.

     I often don’t agree with the things they are saying, and I sometimes don’t understand the things they are saying, and I sometimes wonder why they have to say it with drums and giant puppets…but I get that they are angry, and that they are disappointed, and that they feel that the country has let them down…

     …and I get that they don’t think that voting and lobbying and volunteering has gotten them or their issues anywhere.

     They feel ignored, misunderstood, disenfranchised, and exploited.  They feel outnumbered, outspent and outclassed by forces more powerful, richer, and more influential than they are.

     They know that this isn’t the way Americans are supposed to feel.

     They know that this isn’t the way it’s supposed to be, and for them and their issues, America has fallen short, and will continue to do so until they are heard and the problems they see are addressed.

     ...and I think it’s interesting and telling that the best response that our government can come up with is to call them “traitors” or “agitators” or “disgruntled”, and occasionally float a Constitutional amendment to ban burning the flag.

     Now, an anti-flag-burning amendment makes sense if what the flag symbolizes is the idea that it should be illegal to think American can be wrong, or that America can make mistakes, or that the American dream is being withheld from some Americans.  If it should be illegal to think that people are allowed to be unhappy with some of the decisions of our government, or even to disagree with the majority and say so…

     But if we are going to say that the flag stands for the ideals of this country…the right to disagree, the right to dissent, the right to believe as your conscience dictates, the right to have a chance at life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness…then the worst desecration we can offer the flag is to force it to continue to fly no matter how many people think the things that it symbolizes have been desecrated.

     The best protection for the flag and it’s “sanctity” (there’s that word again) is for America to live up to it’s ideals, and to allow Americans who think we’ve fallen short to say so, and if they think that America has desecrated the ideals that the flag stands for, and the flag can no longer fly with honor, then they should be allowed to do it the honor of burning it.