I understand how strongly so many of my fellow veterans and citizens feel about the flag and I understand the powerful sentiment in state legislatures for such an amendment. I feel the same sense of outrage. But I step back from amending the Constitution to relieve that outrage. The First Amendment exists to insure that freedom of speech and expression applies not just to that with which we agree or disagree, but also that which we find outrageous. I would not amend that great shield of democracy to hammer a few miscreants. The flag will be flying proudly long after they have slunk away.
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About Colin Powell
Colin Powell was a 20th-century American general, diplomat and statesman. Colin Luther Powell was an American Army general, diplomat, and statesman who was the 65th United States secretary of state from 2001 to 2005 and was the highest-ranking African American in the federal executive branch in American history until the election of Barack Obama as president in 2008. Originally a member of the Republican Party, he was the first African-American to hold the office. Read more on Wikipedia →