The backlash to Donald Trump’s election has led to some not-so-friendly acts from both the left and the right. Even walking around our self-proclaimed tolerant campus I’ve seen things such as “Kill Trump” chalked on the sidewalks. I don’t think these people understand that Mike Pence would then become president, but that’s not the point. One of the most controversial of these acts against our new presidential elect has been burning the American flag.
I can see why this would infuriate millions of people across the country. Many men and women had to die for our right to live in this country, and burning the flag completely casts aside all the progress and togetherness that America stands for.
It’s an act of division to burn the flag. Someone who lights the stars and stripes on fire is saying that she doesn’t believe in what America stands for anymore. It hurts me to think that people could be so jaded when it comes to the future of our nation.
Even though it’s unsettling when someone burns the American flag, it should by no means be illegal.
The First Amendment in the Bill of Rights “guarantees freedom of expression by prohibiting Congress from restricting the press or the rights of individuals to speak freely.” These rights are extended to acts of expression, not just speech itself.
Would we want to live in a country that can’t speak out against its government? I can’t imagine living in China, Libya, North Korea or any of the other countries that imprison or execute their dissenters. Believing in individual freedom means that we need to believe in personal expression.
When someone sets the flag on fire, is it directly harming anyone? No. It’s certainly unpatriotic, but it doesn’t harm others. It’s merely a way to express visceral unhappiness with the status quo.
Burning the American flag is just a juvenile way of protesting. It doesn’t offer any better solutions to the problems we’re facing as a nation. It doesn’t take into account the centuries of progress our great country has achieved and ushered onto the rest of the world. It’s akin to a toddler throwing a temper tantrum when his mother won’t buy him a Twix bar in the Kroger checkout line.
But the right to protest against the government, no matter how childish, should be upheld in America for the rest of its time as a country. I can’t see a situation where I would ever douse the flag in gasoline and take a lighter to it, but I will always fight to ensure that freedom of expression is upheld.
We need to be careful with our new president elect’s outlook toward media and freedom of speech. I understand that many people admire his no-nonsense response to reporters. However, when he tweets that he wants to jail people and revoke their citizenship for burning the flag, we need to remain vigilant.
Whoever you voted for this year, remember that censorship is wrong, no matter which party tries to institute it.
dylmoore@umail.iu.edu
