Burning the American Flag

There was an article in this morning's news about a town being upset because some little snot-nose had torched the American Flag in their town square. A bona-fide 'veteran' was all up in arms and thought they should hang the person if they caught him because it was such an affront to all those people who fought in all those wars (paraphrasing). 


Burning the flag, as reprehensible as it may seem, is protected under the 1st Amendment. Hanging someone, as the veteran suggests, is a crime - burning the flag isn't. As the daughter of a Korean war veteran resting in a B-29 at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean, I guess I'll say this - if someone burns a flag, that is not against our men and women in uniform, it is generally a statement about government. Nationalism is as great a stimulus for war - almost - as religion. I tend to abhor both as they are meaningless, contrived, and deadly for all but those who profit from them.