David Skaggs: “our flag commands the deepest respect because it stands for a Nation and a community that is strong, strong enough to…”

“our flag commands the deepest respect because it stands for a Nation and a community that is strong, strong enough to tolerate diversity and protect the rights of those expressing unpopular views, and even expressing them on some regrettable occasions in a particularly offensive way. It is our Nation's strong commitment to those values, not the particular design of our flag, that makes this country an unparalleled model of freedom and the greatest of all nations, and it was because of those values that I was proud to serve my country in uniform in Vietnam. Our Nation was founded on the ideals of democracy and freedom, the freedom to speak our minds, to question, to criticize and discuss freely, without interference from the Government. The depth of our commitment to that freedom is tested and measured in precisely those cases like flag-burning where the views expressed are especially offensive. How do we honor the liberty for which the flag stands? By diminishing the liberty in order to protect the symbol? Justice Brennan put the proposition wisely and rightly in the Johnson case a few years ago, and I quote, "Nobody can suppose that this one gesture of an unknown man burning a flag will change our Nation's attitude toward a flag. The way to preserve the flag's special role is not to punish those who feel differently. . . It is to persuade them that they are wrong.…”