Letter: Is burning the flag really speech?

As I hung Old Glory up on this July 4th, I was reminded of all the rhetoric regarding our freedom to burn our flag just because we have that right.

In Texas v. Johnson, 491 U.S. 397 (1989) the Supreme Court of the United States upheld defendant Gregory Lee Johnson’s act of flag burning as protected speech under the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. Further decisions by the court lumped tattoos, actions, as in flag burning, and even body piercings as expressions protected under this amendment. Dictionaries define ‘speech’ as – communication/expression of thoughts through spoken words, utterance or dialogue. I can even understand how the written word falls under ‘speech’ because it has to be expressed with alphabetical letters that make up our speech. I already hear some folks disagreeing because they perceive flag burning as a form of expression and therefore protected; but it’s not a vocal/spoken form of expression.

I fail to see the Supreme Court’s wisdom in this matter. Of course, this leads to one last burning question. Why would you want to desecrate one of the most visible symbols of our country just to prove a point?