Should Flag Burning Be Illegal?

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There are many things that are looked down upon in the United states, but aren’t necessarily illegal. One of those things being burning the American Flag. There aren’t any written laws against flag desecration, and it should stay that way. First of all, burning the flag is a means of free speech. Freedom of Speech is the political right to communicate one's opinions and ideas using one's body and property to anyone who is willing to receive them. In a 1995 movie, fictional president Andrew Sheperd said, “You want free speech? Let’s see you acknowledge a man whose words make your blood boil, who’s standing center stage and advocating at the top of his lungs that which you would spend a lifetime opposing at the top of yours. You want to claim this land as the land of the free? Then the symbol of your country can’t just be a flag; the symbol also has to be one of its citizens exercising his right to burn that flag in protest. Show me that, defend that, celebrate that in your classrooms. Then, you can stand up and sing about the ‘land of the free’.” The quote basically states that freedom of speech is actually being able to burn the American flag without being arrested. Secondly, flag desecration is protected under the First Amendment. The First Amendment reads: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances. The First Amendment makes it legal to burn the American Flag. Lastly, flag burning should not be illegal because, if it were to be, Americans would have their right taken away. As Supreme Court Justice William Brennan stated, in a flag burning case, "Punishing desecration of the flag dilutes the very freedom that makes this emblem so

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