Is Burning Old Glory Free Speech?
by Silvio Carrillo Thursday, January 27, 2000 Desecration of the American flag by burning is a particularly provocative insult: in a country that prides itself on freedom of speech, flag-burning is meant to test that freedom to its limits. There is currently nothing in the Constitution’s definition of freedom of expression that expressly declares flag-burning illegal. But many consider this a clear distortion of what the founding fathers fought for in the first place. So how should patriotic Americans react to an act that is intended to provoke some sort of reaction? Should an amendment be added to the constitution forbidding desecration of our national symbol? Or should they turn the other cheek, since such an amendment be a gratuitous desecration of the constitution itself? At the 1984 Republican National Convention in Dallas, protestor Gregory Lee Johnson burned an American flag in front of Dallas City Hall. Johnson was charged and convicted with desecration of a venerated object. T
