On March 28, 2000, 63% of the United States Senate voted to protect our Constitution by denouncing the 1989 Supreme Court decision which declared flag burning to be "speech." Their vote defended our right to protect our flag, a right we enjoyed since our nation's birth, a right defended by four Chief Justices and other Justices on five Supreme Courts in the last century. It is a right demanded by some 80% of the people and for which 49 states have petitioned the Congress.

James Madison, the "Father of the Constitution," denounced flag burning as a crime as did his friend Thomas Jefferson. Justice of the Supreme Court Hugo L. Black, 32°, Valley of Birmingham, Alabama, said: "Our Constitution was not written in the sands to be washed away by each successive wave of new judges blown in by each successive political wind." He also said: "It passes my belief that any thing in the Federal Constitution bars…making the deliberate burning of the American flag an offense."

In contrast to the vote of 63% of the United States Senate to defend the American flag by means of an amendment to the Constitution, 37% of the Senate ignored the majority in defense of the flag and voted against the right of the American people to protect the "Stars and Stripes." Tragically, the vote on March 28, fell four short in the Senate although, overall, 70% of the Congress voted to correct the Supreme Court error. The battle will now carry over to the next Congress. America has never won a war without losing some battles. We will win this battle and some day recapture our flag. How soon will depend on we the people.

Abraham Lincoln warned, "Don't interfere with any thing in the Constitution. That must be maintained, for it is the only safeguard of our liberties." We the people must not allow the Supreme Court to interfere with our Constitution. Much of the evil in our society is the result of decisions by black-robed unelected judges, and the politicians who support them, in defiance of the Founders' clear intent in the Constitution. Those who believe in interpreting the Constitution according to current trends teach us that that sacred document says pornography is protected speech, prayer is not; that you may burn our flag, but not your draft card; and that you may display in public nearly any obscenity, but not the Ten Commandments.

We are a Republic, ruled by our elected representatives, but the will of the people is our ultimate and only protection from tyranny. We may disagree on flag burning, but we must agree on the inviolability of our Constitution, the Constitution as written by the Founders, not as interpreted by a legal elite. We should be outraged by those who despoil that precious document for their own political agendas. Flag desecration is not speech and to say so desecrates our Constitution.

As always, the battle to protect our Constitution is left to we the people, and our only defense is to elect leaders who revere both the constitutional intent of the Founders and the will of the people. A politician's position on the flag amendment will tell much about his or her philosophy on the Constitution and the will of the people.

Flag burning is wrong, but what it teaches is worse. It teaches our children disrespect; it teaches that the outrageous conduct of a minority is more important than the will of the majority; it teaches that our laws need not reflect our values; and it teaches that the courts, not the people or the Congress, own the Constitution.

Every American, in the presence of "Old Glory," has promised to safeguard our Constitution. Our veterans make their promise when they raise their hand and vow to protect the American flag from all enemies, both foreign and domestic. Our children do so when they raise their hand to their heart and say the "Pledge of Allegiance." Our pledge as civilians and oath as veterans mandate that we correct the mistake of the Supreme Court regarding this issue. That is the bottom-line objective of the flag amendment. It is an effort to keep a promise, and we will not have kept that promise until the flag is freed from the grasp of the courts and returned to the bosom of the people.

The courts demand that we accept flag burning. We are not demanding that people love our flag as every American should, but we are demanding that the immutable truth of our Founding Fathers be restored to the Constitution.