No matter how angry this gets us…
A member of the bizarre Kansas church that protests U.S. soldiers’ funerals has been arrested in Nebraska because her young son stomped on an American flag.
Don’t get me wrong. I hate the folks who do this as much as the next person, particularly these crazies who think it’s o.k. to protest funerals of any type, but they still should be allowed to trash an American flag.
Why?
Well, no one can make a law that abridges free speech, we all know that. Folks can only make laws to ban actions. So if we decided to ban burning the flag, we would have to arrest everyone who burned a flag, regardless of why. That would be a real blow for all those Veterans who ritually burn old flags at VFW locations all across the country. We would have to arrest every one of them. I know that sounds harsh, but the law is the law.
Now, I’m not really in favor of arresting these Veterans, so the only solution is to grit our teeth, and let people burn, or stomp, or do whatever to the flag. I know it’s not easy, but we don’t have the right to live our whole lives without being offended.
Freedom isn’t free, and it isn’t always fun, but it’s a whole lot better than the alternatives.
Darren Copeland 