Melville H. Nahin
1924 San Ysidro Drive, Beverly Hills, California 90210–1521

Even in the name of free expression, it is difficult to defend abuse of the flag.

I am a lawyer. As such I have been trained to respect the law and the institutions of government. For 47 years I have discharged that responsibility. I am also an American and have lived for 70 years under the rights, privileges, and, yes, responsibilities of the Constitution of the United States as interpreted by its courts. During these seven decades, I have learned respect for the law and for order. At the same time, I have learned the importance of protecting the rights of every minority in our population. If but one American citizen is harmed by having his constitutional rights taken from him, we are all harmed.

A while ago, the Scottish Rite Journal published "It's a Grand Old Flag," an article by me about the "Stars and Stripes." I love our flag. I love everything about it and everything it represents. Though born July 19, not July 4, I am still a "Yankee Doodle Dandy" and proud, very proud, to be called a "flag waver." It is difficult for me, as an attorney by profession, to justify the burning or other desecration of our flag, even in the name the First Amendment and it protection of free speech, in this case free expression as "speech." I personally cannot justify this any more than I can justify violence toward law enforcement officers, as in the late 1960s. This, too, was called "freedom of expression."

Some years ago in the Los Angeles community of Watts, not many miles from where I live and work, the expression, "Burn, Baby, Burn" was born. While it didn't relate per se to the burning of a flag, it was a violent, disruptive, and destructive slogan. The result was rioting, pillaging, and harm to anyone who got in the way of such "freedom of expression."

It is not for me to question the decision of our courts regarding flag desecration. The strength of our government lies in its tolerance of dissent, even dissent by the courts of what is clearly the prevailing feeling among Americans to protect the "Stars and Stripes." This, too, is freedom of expression, though by the courts.

Some time ago, our Scottish Rite Masonic fraternity's leader, C. Fred Kleinknecht, wrote: "The American flag is no mere cloth of three colors, however, they may be interpreted. It is the very fiber of our national being. It is the accumulation of centuries of history, of millions of lives, and of as many individual dreams. The flag is America—what we have been, what we are and what we will yet become."

Indeed our Masonic Brother George M. Cohan may have said it best: "It's a grand old flag, a high-flying flag, and forever in peace may it wave!"

Melville H. Nahin is an attorney in Los Angeles, a Past Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of California (1998–99), Past Venerable Master of Los Angeles Valley, present Chairman of Los Angeles Scottish Rite Childhood Language Disorders Clinic, Past Master Ionic Lodge No. 520 and Southern California Research Lodge, and Chairman of the Board of Governors Shriners Hospitals for Children–Los Angeles Unit.