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Flag Burning Poll


The following interactive poll was written in August 1995 by Gregory "Joey" Johnson, defendant in the 1989 Supreme Court flagburning case, as a contribution to the Flag-Burning Page.

(It's not designed to be an actual working poll -- just a series of questions to make you think. )

An Informed Vote

An informed vote on some of the questions Congress is not discussing related to the proposed Amendment to the Constitution to prohibit "desecration" of the flag of the U.S.A.

1. Do you think the proposed Amendment opens the door to other forms of government restriction on political expression? Is it possible that a Federal law against burning the flag could be expanded or followed by a law making it a crime to speak against the flag, or simply to speak against the government?

Yes
No

2. Do you feel that the U.S. is moving towards a government under which people have more freedom or less freedom?

More freedom
Less freedom

3. Burning the flag is the officially prescribed form of reverent disposal of worn and soiled U.S. flags. Do you think that burning of flags should be allowed by those who burn them in reverence and forbidden by those who would burn them in some form of protest?

No one should be allowed to burn a flag.
Only reverent flag burning should be allowed.
Both reverent and desecratory flag burning should be allowed.

4. How should the government distinguish between reverent and desecratory flag burning? Is it possible to distinguish between them without making the beliefs of the flag burner an essential element of the criminality of the flag burning?

Possible.
Not possible.
"I can't define desecration, but I know it when I see it."

5. Agree or disagree; "The opinions of military veterans toward the flag and how it should be used to express political agreement with, or dissent from, the government, are more important than those of any other group of people."

agree
disagree

6. Will veterans figure out that they are being given the Flag Amendment to cover up the drastic cuts in benefits being enacted by the same Congress? Are they being played for fools?

Yes
No
That's a loaded question

7. Which is more important to you: the fact that someone has burned a U.S. flag, or the reasons that someone has resorted to such a dramatic or extreme form of protest? If you learn that a flag has been burned, is your response one of revulsion or of curiosity about the motives or intended message of the flag burner?

revulsion
curiosity
both
neither

8. Even if you are deeply offended by the act of flag burning, do you want the government to protect you from seeing or hearing forms of political dissent that are offensive to you?

yes
no

9. Do you think it is healthy for the government to censor or censure forms of protest that a part of the population finds offensive?

yes
no
sometimes
only if the number of dissenters is very small

10. Do you think that restrictions on the content of political expression, television, radio, movies, rap lyrics, etc. are decisions that you want to trust to government agencies?

yes
no
sometimes
only if the number of dissenters is very small

11. Do you think it is possible that even those who find flag burning extremely offensive might be shocked by a flag burned in protest into recognition of some actual injustice, precisely because of the extreme nature of the protest? Might the fact that someone would go so far as to burn the flag prompt some people to think about what would induce them to do that?

yes
no
maybe
I never thought about it

12. Can you imagine any circumstances in which you might consider burning a U.S. flag?

yes
no
Only if they try to make it illegal
Only until they make it illegal
Only after they make it illegal

13. Can you imagine any circumstances in which you might consider doing anything with a flag, or an image of a flag, that some people might consider to be "desecration"?

yes
no
Only if they try to make it illegal
Only until they make it illegal
Only after they make it illegal

14. What sorts of things might motivate you to burn or "desecrate" a flag?
Other:


15a. Did you click on the "Burn a Virtual Flag" icon on the flag burning home page?

yes
no
I'm afraid to record to an answer to this question.

15b. Would you if they made it illegal?

yes
no
I'm afraid to record to an answer to this question.
Only until they make it illegal
Only after they make it illegal

16. Should this Web site be outlawed?

yes
no

17. What kind of system compels respect for its flag?

A robust republic
A sick and dying empire

Return to the Flag Burning Page
written by Joey Johnson
maintained by
Warren S. Apel