[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 102 (Friday, July 20, 2001)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1388]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


  CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT AUTHORIZING CONGRESS TO PROHIBIT PHYSICAL 
              DESECRATION OF THE FLAG OF THE UNITED STATES

                                 ______
                                 

                               speech of

                          HON. SILVESTRE REYES

                                of texas

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, July 17, 2001

  Mr. REYES. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of House Joint 
Resolution 36, proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the United 
States authorizing Congress to prohibit the physical desecration of the 
United States flag. I urge all Members to support this resolution. This 
is a positive step toward finally taking necessary accountability in 
protecting the integrity and sanctity of our most precious national 
symbol.
  I understand that this issue has experienced years of contentious 
debate involving constitutional challenges. Rather than focus on these 
arguments, I would rather take this time to share parts of a story 
written in my local newspaper, the El Paso Times. The story concerns a 
local shopping center that proudly flies a 30-by-30 foot American flag 
that has recently been taken from its flag pole for the first time in 
several years in order to have its wind-torn, tethered appearance 
repaired so that it may return with a new and fully restored 
appearance. Since its removal, motorists and pedestrians, inhabitants 
of the neighborhood of where the flag resides, tourists and travelers, 
every single person that has come in contact with this flag have missed 
its presence. As one person stated, ``People love it when they notice 
it, and they notice when it's gone.''
  And the people who love this symbol, not just the people in my 
district who give directions to their homes based on the shopping 
center flag, but people all over the country will notice when their 
symbol is destroyed. We have traditional codes and customs that 
encourage utmost respect for the American flag, yet we have never 
protected this symbol with the strength of our laws. We have sent 
soldiers to wars who fought and sometimes died in defense of the flag, 
carrying it honorably and proudly into battle. We have erected 
monuments all over this country and around the world that fly the 
American flag. We have placed the American flag on places where 
Americans have claimed victory in battle and scientific achievement, 
including one place that is not even on this Earth. I ask the Members 
to consider what protest would be profound, what speech should be 
protected and what principle is to be defended if the American flag 
flying over the Iwo Jima memorial is burned, or the flag flying over 
the Memorial at Normandy, or the flag that adorns the casket of a 
fallen soldier, or the flags that fly proudly over our international 
embassies, or the flag that flies in a shopping center in my district 
of El Paso, Texas. People will certainly notice it when it is gone.
  Mr. Speaker, the brilliance of our constitutional laws is that they 
are amendable, they can change with the will of the people. And I 
believe and encourage that the will of Congress is to finally protect 
the symbol that flies over this House.

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