One Man's Desecration Is Another Man's Free Speech

July 1, 2005

 

Just when you thought we couldn't get more politically correct you hear a story like this. Nashville police chief Ronal Serpas recently disciplined a police dispatcher and was looking into taking action against a couple of police officers after they didn't respond quickly enough to an “emergency” call. What was the emergency? A Koran was found outside an apartment complex with a page torn out and what appeared to be feces on it.

 

Serpas and other police brass met with Muslim leaders and apologized for not rushing to the scene of the crime. Some officials were referring to the incident as a possible hate crime. Hold the phone! Doesn't it stand to reason that there must actually be a crime before you can have a hate crime?

 

Don't get me wrong. Desecrating the Koran or anything anyone considers holy is despicable. However, unless they've broken into a mosque and defaced someone else's property, it's not illegal. Still, Chief Serpas found it necessary to not only discipline those involved, he told the Muslim group some dispatchers probably didn't know what the Koran means to Muslims and “could use some training.” Look, dispatchers should be trained on the finer points of the law, not on what one religion or another finds offensive. Besides, the Koran is not the word of Allah it's a copy of the word of Allah. I can buy a copy of the Declaration of Independence in any gift shop in Washington. If I destroy it, I'm not destroying the Declaration of Independence I'm destroying a copy of it.

 

I'm a Christian. If someone burns the Bible it may be offensive to me but I don't fly off the handle and demand their arrest. I know it's merely a copy of God's word. I also know it's not illegal. What Serpas should have done was use the opportunity of his meeting with the Muslims to conduct a small civics class. This is America. Lots of people do lots of things many of us find offensive but we don't arrest them for it. It's called freedom. People have the freedom in this country to be idiots if they choose.

 

Which brings me to what many in Congress have been concentrating on for the past month or so. While the Supreme Court usurps our rights from the bench, Congress has pushed for a constitutional amendment against flag desecration. Many among us who find desecration of the flag offensive have been quick to jump on this amendment bandwagon but let's stop and think about this for a moment. How is that flag any different from a copy of the Koran or the Bible?

 

I'm as patriotic as anyone but I recognize symbolism over substance. Anything I can buy at a hardware store is not freedom. It may represent freedom but it isn't freedom itself. No one burning the flag can ever take my freedom away. Quite the contrary. Doesn't it limit freedom for us to demand that they can't purchase a piece of cloth and do with it what they please?

 

Let's not be hypocrites. On one hand we scoff at the notion of calling the police on someone who may or may not have been making a political statement by defiling the Koran. On the other hand we support an amendment that would make it a crime to do the same thing to a flag.

 

We don't have, nor have we ever, had the right not to be offended in this country. I hope Congress will choose not to start down that slippery slope with the very symbol of our freedom.