Joe Cunningham: “in the past debates people have brought forth trinkets, ties, gloves, and T-shirts and tried to confuse the issue with…”

“in the past debates people have brought forth trinkets, ties, gloves, and T-shirts and tried to confuse the issue with the American flag. What is the American flag? The flag is what we place over the coffins of our fallen soldiers. I would ask those individuals, if they still try this trickster debate, which of those items would you place on the casket of one of our fallen soldiers; it is not the American flag. I have a 6-year-old test. If you ask a 6-year-old what is the American flag and you hold up a tie or a T-shirt, they will say no, that is not the American flag. They know, and so do the American people. In my district we had a group of Hispanics that were protesting over a bill that we passed on this floor years ago and it was on bilingual education, English First. There was a large protest. They started to burn the American flag in my district. A Hispanic man and woman jumped into the flames and rescued that flag. When the press asked them why, they said we value this flag and this country and we do not want anyone to desecrate it. They also pointed out that more Hispanics per capita have won the Medal of Honor and they support this flag and this country proudly. I have another friend who was a prisoner of war for 6\1/2\ years. It took him 5 years to knit an American flag on the inside of his shirt when he was held prisoner in Vietnam.…”