Nobody should be allowed to burn the American flag - if they do, there must be consequences - perhaps loss of citizenship or year in jail!
lose your citizenship for that
weirdo
At the moment, I don't have the slightest interest in burning an American flag. I spent nearly a decade hoisting and saluting the colors, ceremonially folding the flag into compact triangles for stowage, and (occasionally) presenting the stars and stripes at funerals to widows. My grandfather, who fought in WW2, kept it flying continuously in his yard. So I know what it means to people. Fortunately, I can criticize the USA as harshly as I wish without needing to burn a flag – thereby insulting good people.
However, if the USA ever outlaws flag burning, I'll be first in line to set fire to an American flag. If they ever want to strip my citizenship for insulting the symbols of an authoritarian State, then they can flush my citizenship down the drain.
Being American has meant (and should continue to mean) honoring liberty, protest, criticism, diversity, and free expression. If being American instead means a fascistic devotion to a police State, or to a ruling regime with its Great Leader, or if we're meant to salute a racially or religiously or politically "pure" America – then count me out.
Even as a teenager, I refused to mutter the "pledge of allegiance", which was mandatory in public schools. Why should a private citizen be forced to swear loyalty to God or to a federal government? It's an affront. Moreover it runs contrary to the original intention for a federation of independent, sovereign states. That pledge arose in the 1890s, a few decades after the Civil War. Hence the emphasis on an "indivisible" Nation State, which must not be questioned by the separatist individual states. Much later, congress inserted the "under God" phrase during the 1950s, when the federal government was busy persecuting people who thought differently as disloyal commies. Not our country's original tradition, and not one worthy of respect.
