Letters: Legislative to protect the flag would shred First Amendment

I am sick and tired of people who write letters to the editor in defense of the flag amendment, telling those of us who oppose the constitutional amendment to go to another country.

If they want a country where a piece of cloth is worshipped, why don't they move to a totalitarian state such as China, or a banana republic? I'm sure they don't allow flag-burning or criticism of the state in those countries. As for me, I want to live in a country with free-expression.

Nations are not natural or positive, including the United States. Nations are necessary evils which exist to prevent people from killing each other. Nations do not exist to force the beliefs of the herd on the individual. Neither is this country free (though I admit it is better than most).

I don't even have the freedom to decide what I put in my own body (the war on drugs). As a result of the war on drugs, the United States has one of the highest incarceration rates in the world, equaling or exceeding countries such as China. The best thing about the United States is the First Amendment, but the flag amendment would rip a big hole in it.

Daniel Gryder

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