Amending the Constitution to ban flag-burning is like running into a burning house to save your hat. It'd make much more sense to put out the fire.

Granted, burning the flag sends a message loud and clear: "I hate America, I hate Americans, I wish I could burn you out of existence!" And it does get Americans riled up.

But as much as we may want to defend our flag, it'd make more sense to defend our institutions.

We can fly the Stars and Stripes, but if any judge at any time can act as a one-man unelected legislature, that flag is not flying over America.

If any local government can seize our property and hand it over to a developer (who may or may not be among the mayor's campaign contributors), our flag is not flying over America.

If we are flying Old Glory over a country where a million babies a year are aborted; where any judge can redefine our basic family institutions any time he pleases; where the Ten Commandments must be shoved out of sight to make room for "The Vagina Monologues"; where illegal aliens get college tuition breaks, and native-born citizens don't; where captured terrorists are held in higher esteem than their victims; where Supreme Court judges favor foreign law above the U.S. Constitution; where homosexual activists dominate public education--if all this is what our flag stands for nowadays, maybe, out of respect, we shouldn't fly it at all.

Maybe, just maybe, protecting the flag might be a first step toward protecting the things that make us America.

Let's hope so.

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Lee Duigon is a Christian free-lance writer whose work can be seen regularly at www.chalcedon.edu.