Burning the American flag is one of the most disrespectful things a human being can do. It makes one look like they have no respect what so ever for a nation like the US. Although the first amendment states “Freedom of Speech,” it should not mean that one is allowed to disrupt the peace of a fellow American by burning the American flag in the media or in front of them. What if a man from Pakistan saw that a group of the Confederate party were waving their southern flags and burning a Pakistan flag think to what he is seeing? As human beings, we should put ourselves in these situations and see if its good or bad. Before you make the decision of burning a flag, think about how you would feel if someone burned the American flag in front of you. Yeah you can say that people are allowed to burn the flag because of “Freedom of Speech,” but think about how important is the flag is to our nation. The American flag symbolizes freedom! It symbolizes liberty and respect. Now, a great question would be; should the government put a punishment to a person who is caught burning the American flag? People argue about the subject, should burning the American flag be a crime? There are only two answers, but a lot of reasons for both. No it should not be a crime because it is protected by the first amendment. No because it makes someone express how they feel for the country of America. No because it is a part of “Freedom of Speech.” Or the opposite. Yes it should be a crime because it is a disrespectful thing to do to your own nation. Yes there should be a penalty because you are disturbing
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the peace. It is a shame to see an American holding and burning the flag of the place where they were born just because of a mistake the president or the government did. It is not the flag's fault that taxes are raising higher and higher each day. It is not the flag's fault that the president decided to go to war. It is not the flag's fault that you are protesting for a dumb reason. The American flag should be respected for what it symbolizes, for what it stands for. How would our fallen heroes from the past feel? How would our Founding Fathers feel? They would be ashamed of such actions that an own American citizen has done to their own flag. To their own nation. It is very crazy how nowadays you see people protesting over the dumbest things. And to top it off, they start burning American flags. I understand that immigrants or people that are not from here start to do such actions. Foreigners might protest due to the fact that there is war in their country and they show emotional feelings of how they feel. But why do the protesters have to start burning the American flag? The government should set out a rule that no one is allowed to burn no flag or else you will receive a ticket. These are examples on what the offense towards the American flag is and what the fine should be:
Tearing up the flag; fine should be $150.
Spitting the flag in front of police or higher authority; fine should be $300
Burning the flag any where either in your front yard or during a protest; fine should be $500

These penalties would help prevent people from doing damages to an important symbol to America, and it would help from disrupting the peace of other fellow Americans.

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In the court case of “Texas v. Johnson,” the Supreme Court did the right decision of defending the defendant with the first amendment's “Freedom of Speech.” Although it is wrong that an own American citizen burns their own country's flag just because the government have done something wrong does not mean they can go and disrupt the peace of an individual. Mr. Johnson should have been fined or put in state jail for at least a month for disrespecting his own country. In conclusion, I end my point that there should be a law against burning the American flag. There should be limits to what someone can and can not do with an important symbol to our country. People should know that the flag is something special and goes back to our war days. It represents the fallen heroes that fought for our freedom. Our flag represents the heroes of today; firefighters, doctors, police officers, etc.. It represents the memories of our past presidents who struggled to make our country a perfect country. They struggled to make our country not just a country, they struggled to make America OUR home. And then people like Mr. Johnson come along and burn something that means a lot to us citizens. The American flag is not just a flag that waves up in the air and looks beautiful. It is America's blanket, and symbolizes freedom, hope, and a home for us Americans.