|
Mr. KERRY. Mr. President, I thank the Chair and I thank my colleague.
Mr. President, let me begin by saying that all through the years we have been here before. We have had this vote before a number of times. And each time, thank God, the Senate in its wisdom has protected the Constitution of the United States.
I must say that I have concern at a time when real leaders ought to be uniting the country around our biggest challenges, in a summer when American soldiers are in harm's way in Iraq, Afghanistan, and elsewhere in the world, while families at home are struggling with record gas prices, with health care costs soaring, jobs being shipped overseas and veterans who are defending our country and flag are still going without the health care they were promised, it is astonishing that we are here having this debate.
This debate, like wars themselves, can pit father against father, family against family, veteran against veteran. It is a complicated debate emotionally, and I understand that. I am not doubting at all the emotional feeling which is real for every American about our flag. We all understand that.
I remember taking an oath in 1965 with a group of friends of mine who decided--all of us--that we ought to serve our country. We went into different branches of the service with a common sense of what our obligation was. But when I raised my hand, I did not raise my hand to defend the flag; I raised my hand and took an oath to defend the Constitution and our country.
A lot of those friends did not come home. They were buried in coffins that bore that flag until the moment of their burial, and then that flag was given to a family member. That flag was a symbol of their sacrifice, a symbol of their gift, a symbol of our country itself and all that it stands for, but it was not our country itself. I think each of us still feels bound by those oaths.
I took almost the same oath when I came here to the Senate. The obligation is the same: to defend what the Framers of the Constitution intended and never to give in to the passions of the moment, to the momentary urge to try to respond to something emotional that, no matter how much the emotion is genuine, and it is, takes away from the larger principle and larger set of values that guide our country.
I think it would be a grave mistake if we broke those oaths in the Senate today. We need to listen to the voices of patriotism which urge us to do our real duty. Our former colleague, one of the best and bravest men I know, Senator John Glenn, said:
hose 10 amendments we call the Bill of Rights have never been changed or altered by one iota, not by one word, not a single time in all of American history. There was not a single change during any of our foreign wars, and not during recessions or depressions or panics. Not a single change when we were going through times of great emotion and anger like the Vietnam era, when flag after flag was burned or desecrated. There is only one way to weaken our nation.
Senator Glenn said:
The way to weaken our nation would be to erode the freedom that we all share.
Gary May, who lost both his legs above the knee after a landmine explosion in Vietnam--a veteran who was awarded the Bronze Star with combat ``V'' and the Purple Heart--spoke for all of us when he said:
s offensive and painful as flag burning is to me, I still believe that those dissenting voices need to be heard. ..... The freedom of expression, even when it hurts, is the truest test of our dedication to the belief that we have that right.
This is not a test of who loves the flag; this is a test of who has the courage to protect the Constitution.
Mr. President, as I said, I think every single American feels the same emotions when they see the flag. I have seen it in so many different kinds of circumstances where I have been moved and touched by what it does symbolize to us. But our flag is, in the end, not the Bill of Rights. It does not carry in it the freedoms that are expressed in the Bill of Rights. It symbolizes those freedoms. The fact is, who we are is embodied, above all, in a document that has not been changed since the beginning. A desecrated flag is replaceable. Desecrated rights are lost forever.
What makes the United States different, I think in many ways stronger than any other nation, is our ability to be able to tolerate opinions we do not agree with, to tolerate diversity, to tolerate the aspiration for a people to be able to express themselves even when we disagree. That is what is different about the United States. Thanks to our Constitution, we are the leading proponent on the face of the planet for the greatest experiment in freedom set forth in words and in practice.
At the end of our national anthem we sing, with hand over chest, to the flag: ``land of the free and home of the brave.'' If this amendment passes, make no mistake about it, we will be a little less free and we will be a little less brave.
Ivan Warner, an American soldier who was imprisoned by the North Vietnamese from 1967 to 1973, wrote:
I remember one interrogation where I was shown a photograph of some Americans protesting the war by burning a flag. ``There,'' the officer said. ``People in your country protest against your cause. That proves you are wrong.''
And this prisoner of war, not knowing if he would ever be returned to America or whether he would be tortured for what he said, said:
``No. That proves that I am right. In my country we are not afraid of freedom, even if
GPO's PDF
it means that people disagree with us.'' The officer was on his feet in an instant, his face purple with rage. He smashed his fist into the table and screamed at to shut up.
And Ivan said:
While he was ranting I was astonished to see pain, compounded by fear, in his eyes. I have never forgotten that look, nor have I forgotten the satisfaction I felt at using his tool, the picture of the burning flag, against him.
In the words of Ivan Warner:
We don't need to amend the Constitution in order to punish those who burn our flag. They burn the flag because they hate America and they are afraid of freedom. What better way to hurt them than with the subversive idea of freedom? Spread freedom. ..... Don't be afraid of freedom.
In the final analysis, there are eight other powerful reasons for why we should not do this. They are Iran, Libya, North Korea, China, Cuba, Syria, and the Sudan. And of the many nations--there are about 30-plus of them--that have laws about not burning the flag--even a few of our friends--none of them have a constitution that prohibits it. I do not think the United States of America ought to join those countries, including Iraq under Saddam Hussein, the South Africa of apartheid, and Nazi Germany.
So I ask my fellow Senators, are we really that frightened of somebody's willingness to go out and be stupid? In the United States of America, you have a right to be stupid. You have a right to go out and do something that every one of us thinks is dishonorable or unacceptable. And communities can punish those people in any number of ways. I have voted previously for a statute in the U.S. Senate because I believe a statute is enforceable and does less violence to the Constitution. And there are plenty of ways for prosecutors--on disturbance of the peace or destruction of personal property or any other numbers of ways--to prosecute people. But, in the end, a community of Americans, whose love of flag is so great, is going to ostracize anybody who engages in that kind of behavior. Communities have the ability to make sure they do not get jobs, to make sure they are persona non grata within the community.
It is unbelievable to me, with only two flags we know of being burned in this last year--something like eight or so in the last 365 days in America--that this prompts Senators to feel they have to change the Constitution for the first time and the first amendment for the first time. I think it is wrong. I think our country is bigger than that, and I hope our colleagues in this institution will be today.
|
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
