Crossposted from the OneAmericaCommittee blog.
In a local newspaper, a letter writer asked what is the difference between burning a flag and burning a cross. While they "understand and agree that both thet burning a flag and the burning of a cross are wrong for several reasons", as a future educator they may be called on to answer this very question.
My letter to the editor in reply, below the fold.
Dear Editor,
{original_letter_writer} asks for someone to explain the difference between burning the flag and burning a cross.
Traditionally, when a flag is soiled, it is not thrown out in the trash with yesterday's garbage. It is burned. Therefore, what is being "said" in burning a perfectly good flag is that someone has done something that has "soiled" the flag.
On the other hand, the burning cross is the famous symbol of the Klu Klux Klan and what is "says" is a threat to kill someone (or group), normally an African American, if they exercise their full rights as citizens.
And basically, that is the difference. Burning a cross is hate speech. It is equivalent to assault -- the credible and illegitimate threat of violence. And assault is illegal without having to wait for battery -- the violence itself.
Of course, when someone burns a flag, they are "saying" something that is quite senseless. Say, for example, a flag was burned by someone protesting against the Guantanamo Bay prison. Now, this administration is soiled by the prison itself, by the effort to establish kangaroo courts where torture and hearsay are accepted as evidence, and by the effort to place a final court of appeal in the Executive branch.
No matter, because the flag belongs to the ideals of this nation. It can not be soiled by the misdeeds of mere politicians.
Still, under those ideals, we don't suppress speech because it makes most people justifiably angry. The limits of free speech are when its a dangerous act -- like yelling fire in a crowded theatre -- or a threatening one -- like burning a cross.
For additional information
For an additional view of cross-burning laws as punishing an act of intimidation, see this coverage.