Banning flag burning a dangerous idea

In response to the Feb. 11 letter, “Burning U.S. flag should be federal crime”: I joined the military specifically to defend the First Amendment, to do my small part in ensuring that liberty remain a tempestuous sea and not a doldrums of silenced thought. I took this obligation freely knowing that free speech provokes, particularly when cultural symbols are involved. I've willingly signed away personal freedoms so my fellow Americans can shout to their heart's content, assessing that protecting heated words carries fewer expenses than sweeping up charred stripes and buying handcuffs. Or hosing down protester's bloodstains.

To ban flag burning would put us on a slippery slope, and at the bottom is where muzzled compliance replaces discourse, the Constitution becomes just another piece of paper and the flag a mere length of cloth. Ban flag burning? I'd rather be buried in uniform surrounded by the protest-fueled ashes of a free flag than one that's carefully folded, padded and stored away under law and key.

Maj. James D.

Fielder,

U.S. Air Force

Iowa City