66 to 34 ... It couldn't have been closer, but "free speech" (in some people's view) won out!

Strangely, I didn't really care which way the voting went today, but now that it's over, I guess I'm glad that our Constitution won't be desecrated with such a strange Amendment.

Although none of our lives would have been altered substantially had the Senate come up with the required 67 "yea" votes to start the process rolling to make desecration of the flag "unconstitutional," it would continue a divisive process that might take years as state after state would undoubtedly have ratified the Amendment.

And even after ratification, can you imagine the difficult time the Supreme Court would have trying to rule on cases based on the wording of the proposed Amendment: "The Congress shall have power to prohibit the physical desecration of the flag of the United States"?

I truly love our flag and hate to see situations arise wherein it's seriously desecrated for whatever reason, but my own personal picture of the flag is the one I remembered from when I was about twelve years old (above) and not the one (below) taken in Teheran in 1979 at the time of the hostage crisis.



I am personally more offended by bikini-style bathing suits that portray our flag or worse -- when it's used to advertise products from cigarettes to condoms.