Flag Burning Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Flag Burning - Essay Example Indeed, the symbolism of the flag is so deeply embedded in national consciousness that Bourne (qtd in Schatz and Lavine, 2007: 329) was prompted to declare that "We reverence not our country but the flag. We may criticize ever so severely our country, but we are disrespectful to the flag at our peril." The difference lies in that the flag is a symbolic representation of all that which the nation is; the flag represents the past, present and future and is not associated with particular policies and governments, as may be the nation at any given time. It is within the context of that which the flag stands for that intolerance towards flag burning should be understood. Americans are intolerant of flag burning because it expresses disregard for those who lost their lives battling under the flag, disrespect for the institutions of the nation and, a symbolic attempt to deny national memories. The 1960s were the heyday of flag burning in the United States and even though many Americans sympathized with the politics which incited the said act, few were tolerant of it. As Boime (1990) notes, countless Americans opposed the Vietnam War and supported the Civil Rights but were enraged by the expression of the aforementioned through flag-burning.