All but Feingold let us down on USA PATRIOT. Let's let them know that getting our support depends on their filibustering this one.
email from PFAW:
Constitution Under Siege, Again - Urge Your Senators to Vote Against the Flag Amendment
Peaceful political dissent is patriotic. No law can alter that fact. But, with the Flag Amendment up for a vote in the Senate this month, Congress is trying to advance the very unpatriotic idea that using the United States flag as a means of political protest is a crime.
Fax your senators today and tell them that they can call flag burning whatever they like - "provocative," "offensive," "tasteless" - but that they must not pass constitutional amendments to permit laws that criminalize free expression.
Flag Amendment supporters have never been closer to gutting our Constitution and placing the United States in the company of China, Cuba and Saddam Hussein's Iraq. (These nations do, or did, imprison their citizens for desecrating their national flags.) The Flag Amendment has been defeated before in the Senate but only by slim margins. No Senate vote has been held on the amendment since the 9/11 attacks and subsequent military actions. It is almost a given that cynical pro-amendment groups will use these events to try to paint defenders of free expression as insufficiently patriotic. Don't let them succeed!
The fate of our constitutional right of free expression could come down to the vote of one senator, quite possibly one of yours. Fax your senators now and caution them that:
The Flag Amendment would obliterate the core protections of the First Amendment. The Supreme Court has consistently struck down the use of flag-desecration laws to violate Americans' First Amendment right to free expression. The Court has held that the First Amendment was designed precisely to protect unpopular forms of peaceful expression and political dissent such as flag burning.
The Flag Amendment is completely unnecessary. There is no epidemic of flag burning in the United States. Pro-amendment groups can point to less than 125 flag-burning incidents in the last 15 years, and most of those were considered criminal acts under other laws, such as vandalism or theft statutes. The rest are legitimate acts of peaceful political protest about some of the most serious issues of our time, including war, the death penalty, and abortion.
The Flag Amendment would dishonor the valiant efforts of our soldiers to protect our Constitution, including the right of free expression. Contrary to the claims of pro-amendment groups, veterans of our nation's military are not united behind the Flag Amendment. In fact, many veterans, including Secretary of State Colin Powell, oppose the Flag Amendment as a betrayal of the sacrifices they made to defend the rights of all Americans. (If you are or were in the military, please mention that in your letter to your senators.)
Our nation's flag is not a risk. The spirit and freedoms it represents are strengthened, not harmed, by peaceful demonstrations of dissent. As the late Justice Brennan wrote for the Supreme Court in striking down the use of a flag-desecration law to stifle free speech, "
he way to preserve the flag's special role is not to punish those who feel differently about these matters. It is to persuade them that they are wrong...We can imagine no more appropriate response to burning a flag than waving one's own. Fax a letter today opposing the Flag Amendment.
Link Summary:
Fax your senators in opposition to the Flag Amendment:
http://www.pfaw.org/go/flag_needs_no_saving/
Current or former servicemember? Sign up to speak out:
http://www.pfaw.org/go/true_flag_defenders/
View People For's television ad and other resources:
http://www.pfaw.org/go/flag_resources/
TAKE ACTION
As Flag Day and July 4 approach, the Senate is again taking up a constitutional amendment that would allow Congress to restrict free expression when it comes to the flag. Urge your senators to OPPOSE this dangerous and unnecessary change to our Constitution.
Click here to fax a letter to your senators today.
SOLDIERS AND THE FLAG
Are you a veteran or current member of the armed services?
Members of Congress have a heightened sense of obligation to the men and women who have served in the military, especially when it comes to the symbols of the freedoms they fought to protect.
James Warner, a Vietnam veteran and opponent of the Flag Amendment, shared his story with PFAW for a powerful television ad against the amendment (view the ad on this web page).
If you would like to be contacted about future efforts to give anti-amendment veterans a prominent voice in this debate, please fill out this brief online form.
PFAW © 2004 | Circulate until June 15, 2004
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