The Burning Of The American Flag - 1040 Words

During the Republican National Convention of 1984 held in Dallas, Texas, protesters voiced their strong opinions against the former president Ronald Reagan. One of protesters, known as Gregory Lee Johnson, set an American flag on flames in order to express his opinions. The Texas law enforcement arrested him due to the fact he broke a state law which prohibits the burning of the American flag. Johnson appealed and escalated the case up to the federal Supreme Court. In 1989, The Supreme Court decided that the burning of the American flag was an act of one’s freedom of speech and that it was supported by the Constitution. They rationalised that no one should be penalised or prosecuted for utilising the universal rights that are central to†¦show more content†¦This system reflects Texas’ retaliation against Johnson because they are discriminating one expression of one’s ideology through the means of a double standard. Unfortunately, this course of action is unconstitutional and attempts to abolish the rights of the first amendment to some individuals due to ideological differences in expression. Criticism, scepticism, and scrutiny against one’s country is a key component of the democratic system of government. If we are penalised or prosecuted for criticising or scrutinising our governmental officials or our nation’s current state, we have failed to preserve essential democratic ideals. The governmental suppression against those who scrutinise them is a trait found in doctoral and authoritarian societies. These include Persia under Xerxes, imperial China under the Qin dynasty, England under King Henry VII, Germany under Hitler, the Soviet Union under Stalin, socialist China under Mao, North Korea under Kim Jong Un and a multiplicity of many more societies. The common trait between each society is the fact that they all suppressed any form of criticism or scrutiny. For a supposedly democratic nation, the Texas government seems to be appropriating concepts from doctoral and authoritarian societies in order to suppress any unconventional or controversial expressio ns of criticism. This is not a positive direction which the United States is heading towardsShow MoreRelatedBurning The American Flag : The Flag1852 Words   |  8 PagesAshley Lawrence Ms. Zlotziver ERWC 15 December 2015 Burning the American Flag â€Å"Old Glory,† otherwise known as the American Flag, has been a huge part of America s history and a representation of The United States of America. Ever since The American Flag has been around there have been countless debates about whether it should be a crime to burn or deface the flag. 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