Kooks burn flags to 'celebrate' fourth of July

[Regis Philbin]

http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/arc...es/06local.htm

santa cruz

Flags burn in celebration

By GENEVIEVE BOOKWALTER
SENTINEL STAFF WRITER

About 25 revelers celebrated their freedom of speech and welcomed the Fourth of July on Monday night with the "2nd Annual Old Time American Flag Burn."

Around a burn barrel at Seabright State Beach, organizer Brent Adams, 41, of Santa Cruz, declared flag burning not a protest, but a celebration of the Constitution's First Amendment.

"It seemed like a good idea to burn some flags just because we can," added fellow organizer Sha Lar, 32, of Santa Cruz.

The festivities were especially relevant after a constitutional amendment allowing Congress to ban flag desecration died in the Senate last week.

That proposal came in response to Supreme Court rulings in 1989 and 1990 that burning and other desecrations of the flag are protected as free speech by the First Amendment.

But it failed by one vote in the Senate to reach the two-thirds approval required before going to the states for ratification.

"The Senate overruled it by one vote, and let's celebrate it," Lar said. Some at the celebration noted that in other countries, they could be shot for torching the national flag.