Wasting Some Words

I'm working away watching Lehrer out of the corner of my eye and what to that wondering eye should appear but U.S. senators debating the amendment to ban flag burning. I see California's own DiFi take the camera and shortly thereafter, trembling with righteous anger as only an old man can tremble (oh the courage of knowing that any *emotional exertion* may lay him low) I fire up the computer and write this email.

Senator:

I did not realize you support the constitutional amendment to make flag burning a crime. I cannot begin to express the depth of my disappointment. I understand how those who would like to cut the First Amendment back to nothing -- like Hatch and Cornyn -- would support this, but I certainly never placed you in that camp. I can only assume it's a matter of principle because you don't need to take this position as a matter of electoral politics. That actually frightens me. I can only say that as a response to your support for the flag-burning amendment I would still vote for you in a tight race -- better you than a Neanderthal Republican -- but if I come to the conclusion you are going to win, I'll put my vote elsewhere. I am sometimes impatient when those to the left of me howl about "symbolic" acts that degrade the Consitution. Now, I'm howling. I think this amendent is dangerous. It's more than a symbolic action.

Michael Robertson

Little clicker on the DiFi web page says some 300,000 emails have flowed through it. Well, the stupider of her interns need something to do. Still, I feel better. Kind of a King Lear howling thing, maybe?