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During this entire project I’ve been asking a Question. “Do you consider flag burning to be freedom of speech?”

I’ve asked myself and I’ve asked others around me. I’ve been able to look at the issue from their eyes.

My personal opinion hasn’t changed however; I still consider flag burning to be freedom of speech.

It’s expressing your unhappiness with the government and the way it’s running our country.

Even though I still hold true to my own opinions I understand the other side of the argument now as well.

I’ve been able to look at the issue from the other side.

 I’ve seen the looks on the people’s faces the pride in their eyes as they discuss their opinion. 

There total love for their country prevents them from thinking that burning the symbol is alright.

 To them it is unthinkable.

Now that we’ve discussed one article let’s discus another one with a much different atmosphere.

In Oakland California at City Hall members of Occupy Oakland broke in, vandalized, and stole the U.S. National flag and burned it on the steps.

Unlike our last article the crowd was egging them on.

Troy Jhonson said, “The fire starter is a typical member of Occupy Oakland who feels as if the system has failed him.”

More than 400 people were arrested for the breaking and entering as well as the vandalism at the city hall.

Same event different reason and a very different reaction.

But still it was considered freedom of speech.

Once again I have left a link below to the original article.

So far we’ve covered a lot of things now let’s look at anarticle, a real life story.

An LSU graduate student by the name of Benjamin Haas announced on Facebook that he planned to burn the American flag. Although he didn’t actually burn the flag, protestors were not happy with Haas at all. Haas had to be escorted off of the campus ground for his safety, because of the mob of protesters.

Haas was protesting the “Unfair persecution of Isaac Eslava.”

A university student that was arrested for vandalizing a university American flag.

I believe Haas had a right to do what he did, I may not do it myself but he had a right to.

Below is a link to the full article by Andrea Gallo.

http://www.lsureveille.com/angry-crowd-swarms-for-scheduled-flag-burning-1.2562076

Let’s look at some court cases dealing with flag burning.

Street vs. New York took place in 1968. Sydney Street was convicted of flag burning when she heard about the shooting of James Marideth, a civil rights leader. Street took a 48 star flag following the news and burnt it on a street corner in New York.

Another case is Texas vs. Jhonson. Gregory Lee Jhonson was condemned in Dallas Texas for publicly burning the American flag in 1984.

Out of approximately 100 demonstrators Jhonson doused the flag in kerosene as the crowd around him chanted, “America the red, white, and blue we spit on you.”

Jhonson was convicted and charged a two thousand dollar fine and sentenced to one year in prison.

In both cases they were found guilty by the court system.

But isn’t the purpose of our government to protect our life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness?

All Street and Jhonson were doing is giving the government a message. Street grieving, and Jhonson telling the government that he wasn’t happy with what was going on.

We’ve looked at four people who influence my life now lets’ look at
the answers of people who don’t influence my life.
For this I interviewed Ashlyn Keller, Bryan Black wood, Beau Paulding
and Taylor Comstock.
I asked them the exact same question
Comstock said “Yes.” Her reasoning is because in her words “It’s only
a symbol it’s not like there burning down the country.”
Keller also said “Yes, because you have a right to say what you want,
so burning the flag is giving your opinion.”
Bryan Black wood said “No you may have the freedom of speech, but it
is illegal to burn the flag, there is a difference between freedom of
expression and breaking the law.”
Beau Paulding also said “No, because there are other ways to show your
freedom of speech other than burning the flag, that is taking it to
the extreme.”
Ask four people you don’t know and see how their answers match up with
you and the people who are close to you

I interviewed four people all of which are a big influence in my life.
Carol Heilman, Kathryn Lunde, Greg Lang , and Chad Baker. I asked all
of them two base questions.
“Do you consider burning the U.S. flag freedom of speech, the next
question naturally being why or why not?
Of the four people I interviewed two said yes, one said no, and one was neutral.
Bothe Lunde and Heilman said yes they consider it freedom of speech
Lang said it was not, and baker was neutral.
 When asked why Heilman said, “you’re making a statement about the
government n form of protest. It expresses your opinion of the
government.”
Lunde said “It’s a form of expression we have freedom of speech and
speech is expressing yourself.”
When I asked Lang why he didn’t consider it freedom of speech he replied with,
“It is an insult to all of the people who fought and died for this
country it goes beyond freedom it is an infringement on their rights.”
Baker said.”Everyone has a right to do what they want, but burning the
American flag is rude, inconsiderate and just wrong.”
So ask the people who influence your life the most see what they say.
Maybe there ideas line up with yours or maybe not. You’ll never know
until you try.

So far we’ve cover what is government, what the purpose of government
is, and the history of flag burning in our government. The big
question is, is flag burning a form of freedom of speech?

In my personal opinion I consider it to be freedom of speech.
Speech is a form of expression and burning the flag is expressing your
unhappiness and displeasure with our country. I’m not saying the
second you get pissed you should burn a flag. I don’t approve of flag
burning but I do consider it a freedom of speech

Now that we know what the government is and what it does let’s talk
about a big on-going subject in our government. Is burning the U.S.
flag freedom of speech? Before we start debating in our heads, why
don’t we look at the history of flag burning instead of jumping to our
automatic answers.
In 1989 a U.S. Supreme court case titled U.S. Supreme court vs.
Johnson, Johnson was being convicted of breaking Texas law by burning
the U.S. flag in response to the case the U.S. Supreme Court attempted
to pass an amendment to the constitution, granting the states the
right to pass laws regardless of the previous decisions of the Supreme
Court.
The only way congress could make such and anti-flag secretion law is
to amend the amendment. The bill was rejected by thirty four votes on
June/21/1990.
The conservative majority in the 104th congress reintroduced it, 252
representatives and 50senatores signed it. The bill was passed on June
/28/1995 with a vote of 312 to 120. It was sent to senate on
December/12/1995 and failed by three votes.
On February/13/1997 senator (R-NY) of the 105 congress reintroduced
the amendment, this time it was pre-signed with 201 co-sponsors the
bill, however was killed in senate.
Today however the amendment is passed and the states choose their punishment.
It is a misdemeanor for someone to “Publicly mutilate, deface, defile
or defy, trample upon, cast contempt upon, satirize, deride, or
burlesque either by words or act.” The American or state flag in Iowa.

What is the purpose of our government, why do we have one?Like the question what is government, it’s much harder to answer than you’d think.

When I ask Rachel Thomas, “Off the top of your head what is the purpose of our government?”  She replied with, “To tax us and provide security and stuff like that.”

I asked two other people the same exact question randomly.

Aaron Lenard replied by saying, “To set up a structure that will maintain order and to oversee the social and economic eyes of the people.”

Which is a good answer,  while commenting Lenard mentioned that it was a difficult question to answer not because he didn’t know it mentally, just because he couldn’t find a way to phrase it.

We all know the answer inside us. We just need to put words to our mental answers.

When Chad Baker was asked he replied with, “To store order and justice as well as to protect our citizens.”

Well according to what I learned in government class this semester the purpose of government is to protect our life, liberty and pursuit of happiness.”

So ask someone, “off the top of your head what is the purpose of our government?”, and see how difficult it is for them to answer.

What is the definition of government?  The idea of government is easy for us to grasp, government is the basis of our society.  However explaining what government is to an outsider is harder than you think; go ahead and try it. Explain what government is to someone, or better yet write down the definition of government.

According to dictionary.com government is:  “Is the system by which a state is governed.”

According to my gym teacher government is: “the people in charge of the rules and laws of the United States of America and pretty much govern us.”

When I asked my friend Kat she simply said “law”.

Ellorah James when asks reply with “a system of order instated by people in high power”.

There was one noticeably similar thing about the people when I asked them. They all had to pause, to stop and think. So what is the definition of government? Try and find out for yourself, ask your friends I know for sure it’s a harder question to answer than most people would think.