In the fall of 1775, the newly established U.S. Navy went out on its first mission. The Second Continental Congress pushed for the addition of five companies of Marines to accompany the Navy. This convoy, undoubtedly all gung-ho about freedom and liberty, rolled out to sea under a yellow flag with the motto "Don't Tread on Me." This flag is one of the most recognizable symbols of the push for American independence.
For that very reason, it's awfully ironic that in Maine, a controversy has erupted over — what else? — people treading on the nation's flag; a flag, mind you, that serves as the very symbol of the American brand of freedom and liberty that our 18th-century soldiers went out to sea to defend.
At the University of Maine, Farmington, a student named Susan Crane performed a brief social experiment in the corridor of a campus building by placing replicas of the American flag on the floor. The intent of the experiment was to see how many people would step on the replicas and to get people thinking about their feelings on the flag.
According to Crane, more than 95 percent of the passers-by did not step on it.
Regardless, it was neither the intent nor the results that sparked the arguments. It was the treatment of the flag, which some called "shameful" and a "desecration."
But while it is true that putting the flag on the floor violates the federal flag code, we're also talking about replicas here, plus the Supreme Court has twice denied prohibitions on flag desecration.
However, a noble protest was still maintained by veterans and students alike. According to UMF College Republicans chairman Keith Mahoney, "The flag of the United States is everything that our veterans have fought for, put a noble protest forth on the flag-on-floor issue. It symbolizes the freedom that men and women have lost their lives for and are fighting today to preserve."
But while the flag is indeed a symbol of our troops' sacrifices, so are the key principles of the First Amendment — free speech and expression.
Sure, having even a replica on the ground is disrespectful, let alone waiting around to see who steps on it. But when it all comes down to it — though she used such a seemingly unpatriotic act to prove a point — it turns out that by using the flag to promote a free and open debate, she did quite a service to the very symbolism behind the flag she was supposedly trying to violate.
Instead, Crane's experiment is turning into a debate between the two all-American ideals of supporting the troops and our history, and supporting the First Amendment, a debate in which the idea of patriotism is tread all over and desecration actually comes into play.
