Freedom makes people uncomfortable.
As a people, United States citizens are quite comfortable declaring liberty as a virtue that is at the core of our national identity and has been since its founding. Discomfort arises from self-imposed limitations in thinking as to the day-to-day application of freedom to our fellow Americans.
What’s the point?
Promoting freedom by reducing it does not serve the interest of the American people.
In other words, it's far easier to talk the talk than to walk the walk.
Which brings us to Steve Womack, congressman serving the Third District of Arkansas since 2011, former Rogers mayor and and retired colonel in the Arkansas Army National Guard. Womack, it's worth remembering for our purposes today, earns major props for his leadership of the 2nd Battalion, 153 Infantry, 39th Separate Infantry Brigade for a peacekeeping mission in Sinai, Egypt, in the wake of the September 2001 terrorist attacks, freeing up regular Army troops for assignment in Afghanistan. We applaud that service to the nation over the course of three decades.
If you ever take time to visit with veterans, it's interesting to see where they fall on questions of freedom. They served, here and overseas. And some of them bled for their country. That earns our respect.
Still, freedom means different things, even to them. On the question of, say, burning the U.S. flag in protest, some are adamant that allowing it flies in the face of freedom. Others declare such behaviors -- particularly protests against policies or practices of government leaders -- are the kinds of free expression they fought to protect during their service to the nation.
If anyone had any doubt where Womack falls, let us clear it up. He recently filed a proposal for a constitutional amendment declaring "Congress shall have the power to prohibit the physical desecration of the flag of the United States."
First, let's also be clear about this: Our reaction to people burning our national symbol is one of disgust because of what that flag stands for. Clearly, those willing to burn it do not value it the same way or they could not bring themselves to torch it, step on it and the like. These folks are willing to damage it because they know it's a surefire path to infuriate those who love and respect the flag in all its glory and significance.
How many times have we watched the old film, preserved today on YouTube, of Batesville native and Chicago Cubs center fielder Rick Monday reacting back in 1976 as two protesters tried to set fire to a U.S. flag near his field position. He ran by them and yanked the flag away before the pair could carry out their stunt. Next time Monday came up to bat, he got a standing ovation. The stadium message board -- at Dodger Stadium, no less -- read "Rick Monday ...You made a great play." What a great American moment.
But what Womack has offered is different. It's anti-freedom. And it's all about politics, not our nation.
We suggest the U.S. Constitution is an even more important emblem of American freedoms, and chief among those is freedom of speech. It can hardly be more important to protect speech than when it offends the majority of people in this country. Remember all those voices opposing the Vietnam War, those minority voices many tried to shut down? Who turned out to be on the right side of history there?
Let's not defile the U.S. Constitution and its Bill of Rights by trying to give our government the power to arrest people who dare speak out in protest, in any form. And as disgusted as we are when people use the U.S. flag in their protests, we believe the constitutional right to free speech for which that flag stands takes precedent.
Womack has been known from time to time to defiantly chastise lawmakers who play legislative stunts to score political points. He lashed out when it dashed some of his laudable efforts on budget reforms. And yet now, he's ready and willing to perform such a stunt in the name of political patriotism.
Not for a second do we question his patriotism. But we differ with this particular notion of how to serve the nation.
We are always leery of any constitutional change that promotes the idea of freedom by limiting that freedom. That's what Rep. Womack's legislation would accomplish.
Commentary on 07/13/2019