June 9, 2005
Dear Mr. Colvin:

Thank you for writing to express your opposition to a
constitutional amendment prohibiting the physical desecration of the
American flag. I appreciate your taking the time to share your thoughts
with me.

Unfortunately, we will have to disagree about this issue. I
strongly believe that the American flag holds a unique position in our
society as the most important and universally recognized symbol that
unites us as a nation. The flag -- as a symbol of our nationhood -- can
and should be respected and protected from attack. Beyond my personal
convictions, many Californians have told me of their desire for such
protection for our flag. Indeed, California had a flag protection statute
from 1929 until 1989, when the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the
flag protection statutes of 47 states and the Federal government.

The authority for a nation to protect its central symbol of unity
was considered constitutional for two centuries. It was only a decade
ago that a narrow majority of the U.S. Supreme Court said otherwise. At
this point, it seems clear that the only way to protect the American flag is
to amend the Constitution to authorize Congress to prohibit the physical
desecration of the flag. In the 108th Congress I was an original cosponsor
of Senate Joint Resolution 4 (S. J. Res. 4) which would have done just
that. I will continue to pursue the topic in the 109th Congress.

Please know that I value your opinion, but on this issue I am
afraid we will remain in disagreement. However, I greatly appreciate
your input and hope that you will continue to share your views with me.
If I can be of further assistance, please do not hesitate to call my
Washington, DC staff.

Sincerely yours,

Dianne Feinstein
United States Senator

Dear Senator Feinstein:

Although I salute your willingness to compromise with the reactionary Republican right on this issue, your compromising spirit is misguided at this time. At this juncture in history, the country does not need our moderate leaders to compromise with the forces of false patriotism. What our country needs now is men and women of courage to stand up for the Constitution.

> Thank you for writing to express your opposition to a
> constitutional amendment prohibiting the physical desecration of the
> American flag.

Personally, I abhor the desecration of our flag - but the Republican Party's proposed Constitutional amendment to ban flag-burning is just one of three amendments they want. According to their party platform, the other two ban all legal recognition of homosexual couples, including marriage, and also ban most abortions.

In his first week in office, President Bush blatantly signed an executive order giving our tax dollars to religious organizations. This is illegal under the First Amendment. The Bush Administration has also violated the First Amendment by ordering the FBI to infiltrate anti-war protests. Bush has violated the Seventh Amendment by signing an executive order making it illegal to sue Halliburton and other companies involved in the Iraq "reconstruction," despite allegations of war profiteering. The Terry Schiavo tragedy was a violation of state sovereignty under the Ninth and Tenth Amendments. The so-called PATRIOT Act has attacked the Second, Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, and Eighth Amendments. Senator Feinstein, now is not the time for the nation to consider changing the Constitution at the behest of a President who has so flagrantly ignored it.

Senator, I appreciate your career as a centrist Democrat. However, President Bush - by taking over the Republican Party, squashing all internal dissent within that party, and using the Republicans' majority status to steer Congress to the far right of the American political spectrum - has changed the paradigm of American politics. The American center is not where it was during the Clinton years. The "center" is now represented by hard-line Republican conservatives like Senator Frist; it is to the right of moderate Republicans like Senator Chafee, Senator Lugar, Senator McCain, and former Senator Danforth of Missouri. What's worse, the President and the current Republican leadership refuse to compromise, as evidenced by the recent filibuster controversy. The Republicans used filibusters to no end to block moderate judges appointed by President Clinton in the 1990's, but tried to abolish the use of a few Democratic filibusters blocking reactionary judges appointed by Bush.

Senator Feinstein, you need to wake up to the new reality of American politics. Being a "centrist" now does not mean striking a balance between the liberal left and the conservative right. Today's "center" is where the conservative Republicans were ten years ago. The new "right" - filled with reactionaries like John Ashcroft, Donald Rumsfeld, Alberto Gonzales, Douglas Feith, Paul Wolfowitz, Jay Bybee, John Bolton, and the President and Vice President - borders on fascism.

What is fascism? It is false patriotism (this flag-burning amendment), the government championing industry over protection of the environment (i.e. handouts and bonuses to Halliburton), the erosion of civil liberties, the disdain for human rights (i.e. Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib), the monomaniacal focus on homeland security, questionable electoral processes, etc.

Senator Feinstein, the center has moved, and you - along with many Democrats - have moved with it. I ask you to return to the true center of the Clinton era.

> Unfortunately, we will have to disagree about this issue. I
> strongly believe that the American flag holds a unique position in our
> society as the most important and universally recognized symbol that
> unites us as a nation. The flag -- as a symbol of our nationhood -- can
> and should be respected and protected from attack.

I agree with your thoughts about the flag, but not with your conclusion. A Constitutional amendment doing what you suggest will diminish the flag, not protect it. Millions of my neighbors and I fly the flag from our homes every day. The best way to stop me from flying the flag would be an attempt by the government to force me to do so. I love our flag because it represents our Constitution and our country. If the flag became a symbol of the government trying to control our lives - as was the case in the USSR - I would immediately stop flying it.

> The authority for a nation to protect its central symbol of unity
> was considered constitutional for two centuries. It was only a decade
> ago that a narrow majority of the U.S. Supreme Court said otherwise.

Senator Feinstein, the "separate but equal" doctrine of racial discrimination in Southern states was considered Constitutional until 1954, when it was proved to the Supreme Court that "separate but equal" was a contradiction in terms.

It was under six years ago when another "narrow majority of the Supreme Court" brought President Bush to power in clear defiance of the wishes of the majority of the American people, who had chosen Al Gore for the job. (As the Supreme Court decision blocked the official Florida recount, an unofficial recount by the press a few months later proved conclusively that Al Gore had won in that state as well.) I noted above the terrible consequences of that Supreme Court decision: the Bush Presidency, that has shown utter disregard for American values and liberty as enshrined in the Constitution. Ironically, although the President wishes to change the Constitution to ban flag-burning, he has shown no such determination to protect the principles in the Constitution that our flag stands for.

> At this point, it seems clear that the only way to protect the American flag is
> to amend the Constitution to authorize Congress to prohibit the physical
> desecration of the flag.

Senator Feinstein, President Bush has said several times that he wants to "protect" marriage against "activist judges" by discriminating against gay Americans. I know you have seen through the President's smoke-screen on that issue, as you have given a compelling speech - based on facts, not prejudice - demonstrating that the states, not the Federal government, have jurisdiction over marriage laws. The same principle applies here.

When millions of Americans took to the streets to protest Bush's war in Iraq, John Ashcroft sent the FBI's counter-terrorism agents to spy on and harass the protesters. The FBI should be looking for terrorists, not pacifists - and our prisons should incarcerate criminals, not flag-burners.

> Please know that I value your opinion, but on this issue I am
> afraid we will remain in disagreement.

Senator, this entire flag-burning issue is a diversion. More than two years ago, the President took us to war in Iraq on false pretenses, namely that Saddam Hussein had a huge and lethal arsenal of weapons of mass destruction and that Iraq was in league with Osama Bin Laden and Al-Qaeda. The reality? The intelligence the President was handed was inconclusive regarding Iraq's WMD, and anyone familiar with the situation in the Middle East knew that Al-Qaeda was actively trying to overthrow Saddam by selling weapons to Kurdish rebels. In short, the President has sent over sixteen hundred of our soldiers to their deaths in order to stop Saddam from giving weapons he didn't have to people who wanted to kill him. Was that patriotic? As long as Bush remains in office, our sons and daughters will continue to die in this unnecessary war, and it is the patriotic duty of Congress to impeach President Bush and Vice President Cheney and remove them from power.

Unfortunately, the Republican majority of Congress has been loyally rubber-stamping everything President Bush says since he came to power - a loyalty that, as I recall, the Democratic-majority Congress of the early 1990's did not give President Clinton. Instead of investigating the war in Iraq and doing everything possible to bring our soldiers home, Congress is debating issues of critical national importance like flag-burning.

> However, I greatly appreciate
> your input and hope that you will continue to share your views with me.

Senator, I disagree with flag-burning, but it does not need a Constitutional amendment to ban it. I also disagree with the war in Iraq, and it will not end until we impeach President Bush and remove him from power. The difference is life. Flag-burning is distasteful, but it harms no one. The war in Iraq has killed far too many of our soldiers already, and it has also killed tens of thousands of Iraqis who never posed any kind of threat to our nation.

According to the Declaration of Independence, people establish governments in order to protect our rights. Senator Feinstein, I call upon you to do everything in your power to hold the President accountable for attacking those rights and starting this terrible and unnecessary war that has already killed so many of our young people. I further call upon you to table the flag-burning controversy and focus your attention on ending the war and protecting the Constitution. The flag is great because it represents the Constitution - and our founding fathers would agree that the best way to protect our flag is to uphold our Constitution.

Senator, the people of California believe in true patriotism. We understand that only false patriotism would choose to protect our flag, the symbol of our Constitution, while undermining what the flag stands for, the Constitution itself. In 2004, we re-elected your colleague, Senator Boxer, by a wide margin, and a majority also voted to remove George W. Bush from the White House. The people of our great state are aching for a leader who will stand up to the President. Do you have the courage to step up to the plate?

Sincerely,
C. Colvin