The Silsbee Bee (Silsbee, Tex.), Vol. 71, No. 24, Ed. 1 Thursday, July 13, 1989 Page: 10 of 20
This newspaper is part of the collection entitled: Silsbee Area Newspaper Collection and was provided to The Portal to Texas History by the Silsbee Public Library.
Extracted Text
The following text was automatically extracted from the image on this page using optical character recognition software:
Pigi 1, Section 3. TME SILSBEE BEE, TkursAy, July 13, 1919
The
New Federalist Papers
PUBLIC RESEARCH SYNDICATED • 4650 Arrow Highwoy, Suite D-7 • Montclair CA 91763 <
The Flag & The First
Amendment: A Debate
By William Brennan and
William Rehnquist
William Brennan is an Associ-
ate Justice of the United States
Supreme Court.
William Rehnquist is Chief
Justice of the United States
Supreme Court.
EDITOR'S NOTE: On June 21,
the Supreme Court upheld the
right of Americans to bum
their country's flag. The deci-
sion strikes at the very heart of
the meaning of free speech.
Because of the importance of
the ruling, the New Federalist
Papers is distributing special
excerpts from the opinions as
editorial page essays.
saluting the flag that bums
By William Brennan
The First Amendment lit-
erally forbids the abridgement
only of speech, but we have
long recognized that its pro-
tection does not end at the
spoken or written word. Con-
duct may be sufficiently inbued
with elements of communi-
cation to fall within the scope of
the First and Fourteenth
amendments.
Gregory Johnson burned an
American flag as part- indeed,
as the columination-of a politi-
cal demonstration that co-
incided with the convening of
the Republican Party and its
renomination of Ronald Reagan
for President. The expressive,
overtly political nature of this
conduct was both intentional
and overwhelmingly apparent.
In these circumstances, John-
son's burning of theTIag was
conduct sufficiently imbued
with elements of communi-
cation to implicate the First
Amendment. 1
Texas asserts an interest in
preserving the flag as a symbol
of nationhood and national
unity. According to Texas, if
one physically treats the flag in
a way that would tend to cast
doubt on either the idea that
nationhood and national unity
are the flag’s referedts or that
national unity actually exists,
the message conveyed thereby
is a harmful one and therefore
may be prohibited.
If there is a bedrock principle
underlying the First Amend-
ment, it is that the government
may not prohibit the expression
of an idea simply because
society finds the idea itself
offensive or disagreeable. We
have not recognized an excep-
tion to this principle even
where our flag has been involv-
ed. In Street vs. New York
(1969), we held that a State
may not criminally punish a
person for uttering words criti-
cal of the flag. Nor may the
Government, we have held,
compel conduct that would
evince respect for the flag.
To conclude that the govern-
ment may permit designated
symbols to be used to com-
municate only a limited set of
messages would be to enter
territory having no discernible
or defensible boundaries. Could
the government, or this theory,
prohibit the burning of state
flags? Of copies of the presi-
dential seal? Of the Constitu-
tion? In evaluating these choi-
ces under the First Amend-
ment, how would we decide
which symbols were sufficient-
ly special to warrant this uni-
que status?
The First Amendment does
not guarantee that other con-
cepts virtually sacred to our
nation as a whole-such as the
principle that discrimination on
the basis of race is odious and
destructive-will go unques-
tioned in the marketplace of
ideas. We decline, therefore, to
create for the flag an exception
to the joust of principles pro-
tected by the First Amend-
ment.
We are tempted to say, in
fact, that the flag’s deservedly
cherished place in our com
munity will be strengthened,
not weakened, by our holding
today. Our decisioh is a re
affirmation of the principles of
freedom and inclusiveness that
the flag best reflects, and of the
conviction that our toleration of
criticism such as Johnson's is a
sign and source of our strength.
It is the nation’s resiliece, not
its rigidity, that Texas sees
reflected in the flag-and it is
that resilience that we reassert
today.
The way to preserve the
flag’s special role is not to
punish those who feel different-
ly about these matters. It is to
persuade them that they are
wrong. To courageous,
self-reliant men, with confi-
dence in the power of free and
fearless reasoning applied
through the processes of popu-
lar government, no danger
flowing from speech can be
deemed clear and present, un-
less the incidence of the evil
apprehended is so imminent
that it may befall before there
is opportunity for full discus-
sion.
We can imagine no more
appropriate response to burn-
ing a flag than waving one’s
own, no better way to counter a
flag-burner’s message than by
saluting the flag that burns, no
surer means of preserving the
dignity even of the flag that
burned than by-as one witness
here did-according its remains
a respectful burial. END.
During the War of 1812,
British naval forces sailed up
Chesapeake Bay and marched
overland to sack and burn the
city of Washington. They then
sailed up the Patapsco River to
invest the city of Baltimore, but
to do so it was first necessary to
reduce Fort McHenry in Balti-
more Harbor. Francis Scott
Key, a Washington lawyer,
watched the British fleet firing
on Fort McHenry that night.
Finally at daybreak, he saw the
fort’s American flag still flying;
the British attack had failed.
Intensely moved, he began to
scribble on the back of an
envelope the poem that became
our national anthem.
The American flag also play-
ed a central role in our Nation’s
most tragic conflict, when the
North fqught against the
South. The lowering of the
American flag at Fort Sumter
was viewed as the start of the
war. The Union troops marched
to the sound of "Yes, We’ll
Rally Round The Flag Boys,
We’ll Rally Once Again.”
In the First and Second
World Wars, thousands of our
countrymen died on foreign soil
fighting for the American
cause. At Iwo Jima in the
Second World War, United
States Marines fought hand-to-
hand against thousands of Jap-
anese. By the time the Marines
reached the top of Mount
Suribachi, they raised a piece of
pipe upright and from one end
fluttered a flag. That ascent
had cost nearly 6,000 American
lives. The Iwo Jima Memorial
in Arlington National Cemetery
memorializes that event.
During the Korean War, the
successful amphibious landing
of American troops at Inchon
was marked by the raising of an
American flag within an hour of
the event.
RESPECTING THE FLAG IS
NOT JUST ANOTHER
"POINT OF VIEW"
By William Rehnquist
Impetus for the enactment of
the Federal Flag Desecration
Statute in 1967 came from the
impact of flag burnings in the
United States on troop morale
in Vietnam.
The flag symbolizes the Na-
tion in peace as well as in war.
It signifies our national pre-
sence on battleships, airplanes,
military installations, and pub-
lic buildings from the United
States Capitol to the thousands
of county courthouses and city
halls throughout the country.
Two flags are prominently
placed in our courtroom. Count-
less flags are placed by the
graves of loved ones each year
on what was first called Decor-
ation Day, and it is now called
Memorial Day. The flag is
traditionally placed on the cas-
For more than 200 years, the
American flag has occupied a
unique position as the symbol of
our nation, a uniqueness that
justifies a governmental pro-
hibition against JQag burning in
the way respohdent Johnson
did here.
WlostStph
A homing pigeon can fly at
a speed of up to 60 miles
an hour over a distance of
75 miles.
ket of deceased members of the
armed Forces, and it is later
given to the deceased's family.
The flag is not simply
another “idea" or “point of
view” competing for recog-
nition in the marketplace of
ideas. Therefore I cannot agree
that the First Amendment in-
validates the act of Congress
and the laws of 48 or the 50
states, which make criminal the
public burning of the flag.
the Court insists that the
Texas statute prohibiting the
public burning of the American
flag infringes on Johnson’s free-
dom of expression. Such free-
dom is not absolute. In Chaplin-
sky vs. New Hampshire (1942),
a unanimous Court said: “There
are certain well-defined and
narrowly limited classes of
speech, the prevention and
punishment of which have
never been thought to raise any
Constitutional problem. These
include the lewd and obscene,
the profane, the libelous, and
the insulting or ‘fighting’ words
-those by their very utterance
inflict injury of tend to incite an
immediate breach of the peace.
It has been well observed that
such utterances are no essential
part of any exposition of
ideas...”
The Court upheld Chaplin-
sky’s conviction under a state
statute that made it unlawful to
“address any offensive, deri-
sive or annoying word to any
person who is lawfully in any
street or other public place.”
Chaplinsky had told a local
Marshal, “You are a G-damned
racketeer” and a “damned Fas-
cist and the whole government
of Rochester are Fascists or
agents of Fascists.”
Here is may equally well be
said that the public burning of
the American flag by Johnson
was no essential part of any
exposition of ideas, and at the
same time it has a tendency to
incite a breach of the peace.
Johnson was free to make any
verbal denunciation of the flag
that he wished; indeed, he was
free to burn the flag in private.
He could publicly burn other
symbols of the government or
effigies of political leaders. He
did lead a march through the
street of Dallas and conducted a
rally in front of the Dallas City
Hall. He shouted out various
slogans during the march, in-
cluding “Reagan, Mondale
which will it be? Either one
means World War III;" “Ronald
Reagan, killer of the hour,
Perfect example of U.S.
and “red, white and
blue, we spit on you, you stand
for plunder, you will go under."
For none of these acts was he
arrested or prosecuted; it was
only when he proceeded to burn
publicly an American flag sto-
len from its rightful owner that
he violated the Texas statute.
The Court could not, and did
not, say that Chaplinsky’s ut-
terances were not expressive
phrases-they clearly and suc-
cinctly conveyed an extremely
low opinion of the addressee.
The same may be said of
Johnson’s public burning of the
flag in this case: It obviously
did convey Johnson’s bitter
dislike of his country. But his
act, like Chaplinsky’s provoca-
tive words, conveyed nothing
that could not have been con-
veyed and was not conveyed
just as forcefully in a dozen
different ways. As with “fight-
ing words,” so with flag burn-
ing, for purposes of the First
Amendment: It is “no essential
part of any exposition of
ideas..*."
Uncritical extension of con-
stitutional protection to burn-
ing of the flag risks the frustra-
tion of the very purpose for
which organized governments
are instituted. The Court de-
cides that the American flag is
just another symbol, about
which not only must opinions
pro and con be tolerated, but
for which the most minimal
public respect may not be
enjoined. The government may
conscript men into the armed
forces, where they must fight
and perhaps die for the flag,
but the government may not
prohibit the public burning of
the banner under which they
fight. END.
Fun In The Making!
FAMILY RACK
Make a rack for the family to hang letters on
when the mail is separated or to clip a recipe to,
or a grocery list, and notes of various kinds.
1. You will need a piece of wood that is 1/2 x 4 x
12". Sand the wood and paint or shellac it.
2. Make a hole at the top to hang the rack.
3. Fasten three bulldog clips to the board with
Bli WANT ADS
GET FAST RESULTS
COMING NEXT WEEK!
"COMPARE OUR HOMEOWNERS RATES"
FULL VALUE
INSURANCE AGENCY
140 Candlsstlck Drive • P.O. Box 8460
lumberton, Texas 77711 • 755 0623
1-800-
., 825-2140^
Auto • Health ■ Life • Homeowners
Leon Bayless, Agent
0G&MANIA
/ \turclind I brtnnt ’btudu >
i*wwsr^f*sBMia^nmMSMBw^'
24x10s, 24x7s*
and 10 wallets
on your choice of
a traditional,
nursery, spring or
fall background
NOW ONLY
(r#g.112.95)
Bring in any lower-priced advertised
otter and we'll match rt!
limit one special
package per subject
W9|Welcc^»mrv^|||tbo^ chlldwawtultiand fomljy {jjo^htoapp^tiTwnt
RockgroMndc, Doubt# Ejppsureond otter Spaclol Efface Portroiti not ovottaSTin
advertised package. $150 tor eoch additional person In portrait. Minors must be
accompanied by an adult ‘approximate size
Studio Hours: Dally: 10 a.m, until one hour prior to store closing; Sunday (where open):
_store opening until one hour prior to store closing
Wednesday, July 19
5 Days Only!
|, July 19 through Si
Sunday, July 23
MUBU,TX
101S BAST AVINUIN
WAL-MART
^ictureland* (¥brtraitQ§tudio
WAL-MART
CLOSEOUT OF
Ladies’ Wear - Girls’ Wear
Infants’Wear-Men’s Wear
Boys’Wear
★ Swim Suits ★ Shorts
★ Tops ★ Shirts
if Slacks
And Much More
Check Our Clearance Racks For
Our Best Buys — Shop Early For
The Best Selections Of Sizes And Colors
SILSBEE STORE
ONLY
STORE HOURS:
9 A.M. - 9 P.M. MONDAY - SATURDAY
12:30 P.M. - 3:30 P.M. SUNDAY
Mil™
WAL-MART'S ADVERTISED MERCHANDISE POLICY—It is Our intention lo have evei y adveitised
item In stock However if due to any unforeseen reason. an advertised Hem tanot available tor put chase
Wal Mart will issue a Rain Check on request, tor the merchandise to be pm chased at the sale price
whenever available, or will sell you a similar item at a comparable reduction in puce We lesene the
right to limit quantities Limitations void In New Mexico
,
• *
Upcoming Pages
Here’s what’s next.
Search Inside
This issue can be searched. Note: Results may vary based on the legibility of text within the document.
Matching Search Results
View nine places within this issue that match your search.Tools / Downloads
Get a copy of this page or view the extracted text.
Citing and Sharing
Basic information for referencing this web page. We also provide extended guidance on usage rights, references, copying or embedding.
Reference the current page of this Newspaper.
Read, R. L. The Silsbee Bee (Silsbee, Tex.), Vol. 71, No. 24, Ed. 1 Thursday, July 13, 1989, newspaper, July 13, 1989; Silsbee, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth820159/m1/10/?q=Lamar+University: accessed July 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Silsbee Public Library.