Red, white and blue flames rose from the now stifling blaze which had just engulfed an emblem of familiar coloring.

Patriots, now engraved in history as anonymous heroes, grouped together among the embers of the flag, which represented all that they once fought to protect. Now it had become a symbol of repression and conquest flown incessantly by an invading imperial force.

The act of burning the Union Jack was considered treasonous in colonial America, just like any other expressions of contempt for the Crown. All involved in the act risked imprisonment and persecution, notably, without a jury of their peers.

It was those simple infringements of personal liberty which the founding fathers yearned to correct, and protect against. 

It was the freedom to protest, and that which came from it, that they desperately craved. This freedom was one of many being ripped from their now American hands by a now foreign government within which they had no representation.

Thus, after freedom’s historically unlikely victory against that very Union Jack, the free created a new ‘Red, White and Blue’, one which would open its arms to the fires of freedom, rather than firing into the crowds of the next generation of desperate patriots—whose relatives once channeled the same desperation to sew the banner.

It is because of the founding fathers, their fellow patriots, and every following generation’s freedom-loving (people) that Americans are now guaranteed safety when expressing resentment towards their government.

Now, any American who feels the same desperation for freedom can protest without fear of retaliation from an unsympathetic government–a right etched in stone by the Supreme Court in the 1993 case, Texas v. Johnson.

Now, flying the colors of the nation is in the same patriotic company as the right to burn them.

Now, the flag carries more meaning than a national identity; it serves as a willing tool of protest against those who aim to suppress that same desperation for freedom.

Now, people within the nation are represented by officials which bear the people’s flag upon their dress.

Now, there is no king, though one may wish he was. 

Now, there is a democratic republic.

Now, burning the flag never means anything less than flying it.

Now, a politician cannot erase personal liberties by the stroke of a pen.