Proud to be an American?

I was listening to a radio talk show just after the attacks of 9/11 and heard something that was very unsettling.  A man called in to say that after “what happened on Tuesday,” he’d like to see someone try to burn an American Flag now.  He thinks that anyone burning a flag after what happened would probably get beat to death, and, according to him, rightly so.  This maniac believes that this sort of protest, a right to freedom of expression that is protected by our very Constitution, should be seen as an act of terrorism, and that it would be only right in such a circumstance for any real American who witnesses the act to exact a vigilante justice.  He feels that a U.S. citizen now has the right to beat another to death for burning an American flag.

© Salahub 2003