" June 30 (Bloomberg) -- It will soon be July Fourth again. Do you know where your flag is?
Why there it is, inside the Capitol, being waved around by
members delighted to solve a problem that doesn't exist while
ignoring ones that do. Last week, your House of Representatives
voted 286 to 130 to amend the Constitution to save the flag from
being burned. It now goes to the Senate to be waved.
You say you weren't worried about flag-burning? That's why
the folks in Congress make the big bucks and you don't. Ever since 1989, when the Supreme Court ruled that the First Amendment protected desecrating the flag, the Congress has been grandstanding about it with little danger of actually desecrating the Constitution with a frivolous amendment. It gives Republicans something other than the morning-after pill, gay marriage and lesbian puppets on public TV to rail against.
If lawmakers wanted to do something really patriotic this
July Fourth, they might do their jobs. How about asking hard
questions about the war, and beefing up the armor on those Humvees that keep getting blown apart? If the symbol of Old Glory is so important, why have so few Congressman traveled to Dover to see it serving the high purpose of draping the coffins of the 1700 soldiers who died for it?"