Essay: A Few Symbol-Minded Questions

Lawmakers looking for a way to protect the flag have a lot of searching to do if they hope to cover all possibilities. An amendment or statute simply outlawing desecration of the U.S. flag is not going to do the job. Potential loopholes and tricky questions abound. For instance:

If there is only one official U.S. flag, would it be permissible to burn an unofficial one -- say, an obsolete model with 48 stars? Since a flag is, by usual definition, made of fabric, should a wooden representation of it be protected? What about little lapel pins or cuff links with flags on them? What if somebody publicly stomped a piece of such jewelry?

By custom, the U.S. flag is often called "the red, white and blue." Should the nation prohibit the abuse of any red-white-and-blue decoration? Should it be a crime to burn red-white-and-blue bunting? Or foreign flags of red, white and blue? Incidentally, should "the red, white and blue" be considered a flag when represented in black and white?

What if somebody burned one of those decorative wind socks that are fashioned with a blue field of white stars and red and white stripes to suggest the U.S. flag? A crime?

What if vulgar protesters wiped the ground with a flag designed exactly like the U.S. flag -- but colored orange, brown and green? Should that be an offense? Should making such a flag equal desecration?

Should a law protecting the flag also protect homemade facsimiles of the flag? Is a crayon drawing of the flag a flag?

Besides burning, what would constitute the "physical" desecration some of our political leaders emphasize they hope to outlaw? Does that include obscenely wagging a finger at a flag? Sticking out one's tongue at the flag? Thumbing a nose at the flag? What if some miscreant mooned the flag? Or stuck pins in the flag -- in public?

At present, burning the President in effigy is lawful. Should it be unlawful to burn an effigy of the flag? Is the flag more important than the President?

Indeed, is the flag more important than any other American symbol? Or should the statute or amendment be expanded to protect all significant national symbols? What if protesters burned a model of the White House? Should that be a crime?

Suppose the national anthem got desecrated? What if somebody deliberately sang or played it off-key? What if a dissident publicly stomped a tinkling music box while it was playing The Star-Spangled Banner? Should that be allowed?

If flag burning is outlawed, should it still be all right to burn the U.S. Constitution? Or the Declaration of Independence? Or (gasp!) the Congressional Record?

Is the flag even more important than Congress? Imagine that protesters burned the entire U.S. Congress in effigy. Would that be O.K.? What if each tiny effigy were wearing a teensy-weensy lapel flag?

Should states be permitted to electrocute a condemned prisoner with a flag tattooed on his chest? Should burning the flag be a more serious crime than burning a church? More serious than burning a cross?

Should the nation permit postage stamps bearing pictures of the flag to be defaced by inky cancellations?