The President's Inflated Ego
Swelling of Head Leads to Delusions of Self-Importance

By: Kimberly Blaker

President Bush has long held the attitude that he (and only those who favor his actions, particularly his war in Iraq)) is the epitome of patriotism. But in late July, Dubya took it one step further; he appointed himself the father of patriotism and our country.

Despite the bravery and undying efforts of our Founding Fathers and all the men and women who courageously fought to free America from oppressive British rule, giving birth to a United States that would be forever governed by, for, and of the people, these noble men and women never placed themselves above our flag, or what it ultimately represents.

With unbelievable boldness, President Bush recently took it upon himself to autograph U.S. flags that were handed to him by employees of Beaver Aerospace and Defense, during his late July visit to Livonia, Michigan.

Those who actually offered U.S. flags to be signed by the President may, to some extent, deserve criticism, themselves. This is especially so given that the few who actually care, at this point, to have the current President's autograph, hold an attitude that they have the market on patriotism.

The outlandishness of it almost leads me to wonder if the supposed-fans just wanted to see whether our genius-President would actually take the bait - which he did. But of all people, the President of the United States is surely aware of what constitutes desecration of our flag.

According to U.S. Code, Title 4, Chapter 1, Sec. 8 (g), titled Respect for flag: "The flag should never have placed upon it, nor on any part of it, nor attached to it any mark, insignia, letter, word, figure, design, picture, or drawing of any nature."

If nothing else, the President should possess at least enough humility to not elevate himself, or allow others to elevate him, above the status of our flag and what it represents. The President could, and should, have courteously explained that he cannot sign the flag, despite being flattered by such requests. Maybe we should give the poor President the benefit of doubt; perhaps he was momentarily caught off guard and suckered, or disillusioned, into signing a single flag. But he failed to regain his senses after signing the first and proceeded to sign more.

Regardless of the absence of laws prohibiting desecration of the flag, the President's deplorable actions went underreported. Particularly silent have been the vocal proponents of a Constitutional Amendment to give government the authority to render desecration of the U.S. flag a criminal offense that could carry penalties under the law.

Fortunately for the President, those who believe wholeheartedly in freedom of speech have thus far prevented the unrelenting drive to ban desecration of this American emblem from succeeding. Nonetheless, on June 3, the House of Representatives did muster just enough support for a Flag "Protection" Amendment to pass, by a vote of 300 to 125. The Senate will likely vote on its passage during the next session.

If nothing else, it will be interesting to see how this is all played out, especially given that the hypocritical Bush administration supports passage of the legislation that could ultimately ban flag desecration.