Furor Over Flag Burning

I have just finished reading and rereading Richard N. Goodwin’s excellent column (“It’s Our Right to Offend and Outrage,� Op-Ed Page, July 3) about the flag furor. As usual he is right on target, is absolutely correct, and gives precise reasons why the Supreme Court upheld the amendment protecting free speech--that even burning the flag (merely a symbol) is an exercise in free speech whether we like it or not. As he points out, among other things, no one thinks to protect the symbols of God’s earthly church--the cross, the Star of David, the Islamic crescent; all of these can be burned without punishment (except in the case of vandalism). If the flag is “sacred,� how do we separate church and state?

Too many people talk emotionally about “our boys dying for the flag;� they forget that the boys died for their country--that the flag is merely a symbol of that country. I think the flag is “desecrated� every July 4th by all the flag-waving advertisements “great 4th of July sale,� etc., both in print and on TV--it becomes nauseating. And, for the past few years on our street we wake up on 4th of July morning to see little flags waving on every lawn, planted in the dead of night by a local real estate company--an advertising gimmick.

I hope and pray that our leaders, starting with the President on down, will come to their senses and not tamper with the Constitution. If this happens, it will be only the first step toward losing our freedom of thought, of speech, of action.

JEAN R. SCULLY

Los Angeles