November 17, 2006
Not since the flag-burning amendment debate have I received such flack from the listeners of my radio show. Now that we're syndicated, the cacophony comes from every corner of the country. At issue is a little town in Nevada that sounds like it was named by Mel Brooks: Pahrump. This fast-growing town about 60 miles west of Las Vegas recently passed a package of measures designed to discourage illegal immigrants from settling there. The Pahrump city council voted 3-2 to declare English the official language. The package also included a measure denying town benefits to illegals. (So far, so good.) The third part of this package outlawed the flying of any nation's flag by itself or flying it above the Stars & Stripes. Violators would be subject to a $50 fine and 30 hours of community service.
Of course, last May's despicable display of the Mexican flag by illegals in this country was enough to make any American's blood boil. It certainly did mine and it, apparently, got the attention of the Pahrump city council. “Old Glory is sovereign,” board member and retired carpenter Paul Willis told USA Today. “You can't fly any other nation's flag higher than the American flag.” Willis is referring to the United States Flag Code. What Willis and the others on the council who voted for this restrictive flag measure don't understand is that flag code is not enforceable. “Flag codes are simply codifications of tradition and etiquette regarding how, when, and where national and state flags should be displayed, and how one should act in order to show proper respect for those flags,” Snopes.com states on their website in debunking myths of flag code enforcement. There are no penalties attached to the codes nor is someone from the “flag police” going to come and get you for violating any flag code. As well it should be. Congress, when it enacted the flag codes back in the 1930s understood that attaching a penalty would be out of the question.
Like it or not. Displaying flags is a form of expression protected by the United States Constitution, something Congress understood when it adopted the flag codes and something we should understand now. I despise seeing someone unfurling another country's flag above or instead of the United States flag. What I despise even more is an overly intrusive government dictating to me what type of flag I can display on my own private property. If Pahrump's law is allowed to stand then what will prevent other municipalities from adopting similar measures. Following this to its logical conclusion, such flags as the Confederate flag would be banned from being displayed on private property because it is the flag of another country – albeit a now defunct one.
I know any issue regarding the flag is emotional but we must keep some perspective. The flag is a symbol of our freedom. It is not our freedom. Displaying it incorrectly or even burning it does not encroach on our liberties one iota. But mandating and enforcing a flag code does. How ironic that those who profess to be protecting our liberties by enforcing such a code are actually taking our liberties away.
One caller to my show told me that soldiers like him fought and died for that flag. I had to correct him. Soldiers have no more fought and died for the flag than Christian martyrs have died for the Cross. Soldiers have fought and died, not for the flag, but for what it represents. The flag represents freedom. And that freedom includes being an idiot if you so choose.