Dear Editor:
I believe it is right of the citizens to protect the flag as an emblem of the freedom we enjoy, but I also believe that we have an obligation to protect our right to free speech and expression.
In the Supreme Court decision of 1989, Johnson v. Texas, Johnson burned the flag in protest of adding nuclear weapons to the U.S. arsenal. It was decided that the flag was nonpartisan and it did not represent one party or idea but America as a whole.
I would hope that people feel the importance of the flag, the very symbol of our nation's freedom, and that people will treat it with respect. Yet because of the freedom we have, the flag should not be exempt from being part of a person's free expression.
Some people will choose to involve the flag in protest and in doing so they exercise their freedom of speech when they choose to burn the flag.
I also believe that it isn't the actual burning of the flag that bothers people, but the spirit in which it is done.
We burn flags when we retire them and that act doesn't seem to be an action that is protested, yet when someone burns a flag in protest of some decision people become angry at that action rather than the real problem.
Burning the flag in protest shows that they are unhappy with the decisions that are being made.
They are exercising the freedom they have and even though some may not like this, saying that you cannot burn a flag is to say that you do not uphold the liberty and freedom that the flag stands for.
Aliza LeFevre
Salt Lake City