You likely saw the same awful sight everyone else did on Wednesday. A bunch of pro-Hamas protesters got together and started a riot where they took the American flag down at Washington, D.C.'s Union Station and then burned it as they cheered, raising the Palestinian flag up in its place.
It was a moment that had everyone, including myself, ready to grab pitchforks and torches and charge in.
So, if I’ve got this right, far-left protesters can riot in Washington D.C., sometimes for days, burn the American flag, torch leaders in effigy, take over buildings, disrupt official proceedings, and force a former president into a bunker, but the only time it’s an… pic.twitter.com/Spjwy3DKhZ
— Kyle Becker (@kylenabecker) July 24, 2024
As I wrote upon watching that lunacy unfold, these are barbarians who are dead-set on destroying civilization out of some misguided notion that America is evil, racist, and every negative thing under the sun. If they were to truly be given what they wanted, they would regret it immediately. Try to send them to Gaza, and you'll find they very much do not want to go there. Still, they act as useful idiots for anti-American forces throughout the world.
Republican candidate Donald Trump also saw it and reached the conclusion that anyone who burns the flag should receive up to a year in prison. According to The Hill, he thinks anyone who disagrees with that is "stupid":
“You should get a one-year jail sentence if you do anything to desecrate the American flag,” Trump said Wednesday on “Fox & Friends” when asked about the protests.
“Now, people will say, ‘Oh, it’s unconstitutional.’ Those are stupid people. Those are stupid people that say that,” the former president continued. “We have to work in Congress to get a one-year jail sentence. When they’re allowed to stomp on the flag and put lighter fluid on the flag and set it afire, when you’re allowed to do that — you get a one-year jail sentence, and you’ll never see it again.”
I guess I'll stupidly point out that the Supreme Court decided in a 5-4 case that flag burning was, in fact, constitutionally protected free speech in the 1989 case Texas v. Johnson. Burning the American flag is a First Amendment right.
And I agree with that. I believe that burning a symbol is and should be protected speech, and as much as I disagree with the act on a moral and patriotic level, this also includes the American flag.
And here's where my "but" comes crashing in like a dinosaur-killing meteor.
This doesn't seem to be applied equally, and I have a huge problem with that. You can burn the American flag all day, and it's apparently protected speech...but burn or desecrate the LGBT or "Pride" flag, and you've suddenly broken the law.
To recap you on recent events, teens were recently charged with felonies for scuffing up a pride mural on a street. There are other instances of punishments coming down from on high for vandalizing murals painted on a street, but in my opinion, this is the most egregious one.
(READ: They're Not Leaving Marks on Pride Murals Because They Hate Gay People)
In 2019, one Iowa man got 16 years in prison for the burning of an LGBT flag after he stole it from the Ames United Church of Christ. He was saddled with hate crime charges.
That doesn't seem right at all.
The argument here is that burning the LGBT flag is hate speech and, as such, should be punished as if he was leading people to violence against a specific group. The same was said about the boys who were charged with felonies.
But that's exactly what the people who were burning the American flag were feeling when they committed their act of "protest." They hate America. They openly say it. In fact, they say it while they tell Jewish people they're going to come for them, as they believe the U.S. is under the full control of the Jewish people and their organizations.
WARNING: LANGUAGE
📣 “Jewish motherf***ers. We’re gonna kill all of you.
— Kosher🎗🧡 (@KosherCockney) July 24, 2024
We’re gonna burn you. Allah Akbar. Hamas!”
And then they burnt this effigy of the Prime Minister of the Jewish State Benjamin Netanyahu.
Take their threats seriously.
The “Pro-Palestine” movement IS the Nazi movement. pic.twitter.com/zIGlPX0a3b
They burn the American flag because they hate America. They hate American values. They hate the American people who have them.
As I've written before, many who would burn the LGBT flag might very well hate gay people, but what about the people who would burn it as a symbol of resistance to its all-encompassing agenda? One that involves forcing you to adopt behaviors at work or online. One that would infiltrate your children's schools in order to normalize fringe sexual behaviors? Would that not be a form of political speech? Would that not fall under the First Amendment?
Why doesn't it?
My position is simple. Either it's all political speech, or none of it is. If someone can go to jail for burning an LGBT flag, then they should give up the idea that burning up the American flag is any different.
Or, we could live in a country where the law applies equally, and we can all practice free speech as we see fit without worrying about comeuppance from the legal system.
