Then do you think of me as the flag burners in your story? Do you see me as someone who hates our country or hates the flag and wants to burn it? I do not mean to portray myself as such a person, and I do not hate the country. In that respect, I am not a flag burner from the story.

The words of your story made the old man sound like a hero. But the old man was basically saying that he was going to murder someone if they continued to burn the flag. The first thing I'd have done is call the police and have the old man arrested.

I am in eternal gratitude that people have fought and died to protect our freedom. But those people shouldn't have had to fight, and they shouldn't have had to die. They had to because bad men came to take away our freedom, and there was no other choice but to fight. In your story, the bad man who came to take away the people's freedom was the old man. The protesters there shouldn't have to die to exercise their freedom, and the old man, the man who would commit murder to stop fabric from being burned, is a monster.

As I said, I would have called the police and had the old man arrested. But that isn't all I would do. I would try to talk to the protestors and convince them that our nation is good, and their protest is misguided. I would do what the old man did, except without threatening murder. I would try to change minds through persuasion, not through violence.

What I truly don't understand is why this story leads you to want to ban flag burning. What is your logic? An old man wants to kill a flag-burner, so your conclusion is that flag burning should be banned? Veterans raised a flag at Iwo Jima, therefore people should not have the freedom to burn flags? People should only have freedoms they're willing to die for? I don't understand what you are trying to say by this story.

But perhaps it will please you to know this, that if there were some way that my death would secure people's freedom to burn the flag, or if my death would ensure gay equality, or if my death would ensure one of many other freedoms for all Americans, I would glady die for those causes. But that simpy isn't the case. These freedoms will only be preserved by words and persuasion, and I can't persuade anyone if I'm dead.