Protect the meaning of the flag  June 21, 2005  Americans are as
sharply divided over Iraq as any foreign intervention since
Vietnam, yet there haven't been reports lately of flags being
set ablaze by demonstrators on U.S. streets. No stories about
Old Glory being spit or stomped on, let alone shredded into
little pieces. A flag protection group that tracks such
incidents has found just two this year.  Whatever you think of
its appropriateness, flag desecration simply isn't much of a
problem. Except, it appears, in the halls of Congress, where the
House is poised to vote within days on a constitutional
amendment to outlaw the practice--an amendment that would shoot
an ugly hole in the Bill of Rights.  The flag amendment has been
rising up session after session ever since a 1989 U.S. Supreme
Court ruling that flag burning was protected speech. The
amendment has been beaten back repeatedly. Opponents, though,
fear they are perilously close to losing the fight this time.
Congress has grown more conservative, and