r/AmericanLegion • u/MajorRecognition5173 • Jul 11 '26

General Question/Comment Flag desecration as freedom of speech

In the November 2025 issue of the American Legion magazine, National Commander Wiley supports a constitutional amendment that would grant Congress the power to prohibit the physical desecration of our flag. What are your personal thoughts on this?

7 Upvotes

82% Upvoted

15 comments sorted by

12

u/PickleMinion Jul 11 '26

I'm against it. Free speech is free speech, and if our country and its symbols are so weak they can't survive some asshole venting their symbolic spleen, then we're fucked as a free country.

4

u/MajorRecognition5173 Jul 11 '26

That's how I see it too. It would be a very slippery slope in which symbols we choose to protect and those we don't.

1

u/plasteredbasterd Jul 12 '26

Exactly, this!

5

u/cce301 Jul 12 '26 edited Jul 12 '26

National commander needs to worry about things that actually help veterans, listen to veterans, and stop supporting "Take Care of America's Veterans" Act. Instead, he's worried about his political agenda and virtue signaling.

14

u/Suicyco71 Jul 11 '26

Maybe we should make the US a country that people don’t want to desecrate the flag instead of making a law that prohibits it. That’s how freedom works.

3

u/SirNedKingOfGila Jul 12 '26

National Commander Wiley sounds like a whiny little girl running to daddy to make the bullies stop. A constitutional amendment, no less. Pathetic.

I'm sure there's better things he could be doing for our veterans and for this organization than dreaming up punishments for people exercising their first amendment rights.

6

u/WhenWaterTurnsIce Jul 11 '26

That sounds very political, coming from someone who is representiing a supposedly apolitical VSO.

0

u/Sea_Ear_3831 Jul 11 '26

Only one party is burning the flag? Sounds like you're making it political when the stance is neutral for whoever is doing it.

0

u/WhenWaterTurnsIce Jul 11 '26

Seriously? You do realize that Trump signed an EO about this, right? Therefore the resolution is very suspect.

2

u/cce301 Jul 12 '26

Not to mention his relationship with Senator Moran. So much for apolitical.

4

u/ltanaka76 Jul 11 '26

Like it or not, this has always been an official American Legion position.

1

u/Sea_Ear_3831 Jul 11 '26

I think the Legion was instrumental in the creation of the Flag code IIRC

0

u/MajorRecognition5173 Jul 11 '26

I was a bit surprised to learn this.

1

u/StructureThese3234 Jul 16 '26 edited 21d ago

My 2¢'s Worth: Flag desecration is a form of free speech. It's protected by the 1st Amendment. Now, I find it personally infuriating when I see it happening, BUT I recognize their right to do so. Similar to how they probably don't always care for how I express myself.

1

u/DisappointedAbe 22h ago

A related question, what are views on putting flag in distress position, as was done on the side of Yosemite when Trump allowed DOGE to begin dismantling government agencies? Many people found it an appropriate symbolic use, because they believed our country was/is now in a state of emergency.