Jeez, I'm enjoying my CNN today...

I guess that a constitutional ammendment is making it's way through the US Congress that would ban flag-burning in America. This would be be an alteration of the free-speech portion of the constitution.

Some representative named Randy Cunningham had this to say on the subject:

"Ask the men and women who stood on top of the [World] Trade Center. Ask them and they will tell you: pass this amendment."

My gut reaction on reading this quotation was to say "Fuck that!" out loud. Which I did. I don't believe that the deaths of all those people should be used to twist votes out of a sympathetic and still-reeling public and congress. It just makes me SO angry! Sure, maybe polls tell you that the increased patriotism in the United States (which led to this proposal) is related to the Trade Center attacks, but don't you dare go sticking your words and opinions in the mouths of the dead. This disgusts me. Pay those people their respects, but don't go dragging the list of their names around in the political mud of Congress in an attempt to further some personal/party agenda.

I'm sure many who died believed in the absolute right to freedom of protest, which I believe includes flag-burning. The vast majority of the time, it's done to relay the impression that the burner has massive grievances with the government and how it's run. Especially now, with more than half the country having a tremendous beef with the president's choices, I think the option should be there should people be so inclined to express their rage. I mean -- I couldn't see myself making use of this right, were I an American, but then again if any of my siblings or parents had been incinerated by a car bomb while fighting a useless war in Iraq, my opinions might differ.

Sometimes I hate polititians. Most of the time of just dislike them.