Why the flag burning debate is still not settled

On Point with Meghna Chakrabarti

WBUR

Talk Show, Daily News, News, Npr, On Point, Daily

4.2 • 3.5K Ratings

🗓️ 22 September 2025

⏱️ 51 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

President Trump has issued an Executive Order requiring the Justice Department to prosecute people for burning the American flag. But the Supreme Court has ruled flag burning is free speech. What the debate reveals about the value of national symbols.

Transcript

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0:33.3	This is On Point. I'm Magnitakrabardi. In 1984, the Republican Party held its national presidential convention in Dallas, Texas.
0:42.8	Ronald Reagan was both the incumbent president and the party's nominee.
0:47.2	The convention drew protesters for and against various causes.
0:52.1	Protesters marching against U.S. foreign policy on Iran, protest marching for Christian values,
0:58.0	protesters gathering in opposition to all war.
1:02.0	Well, a local Dallas reporter noted that protests of any size were unusual for the city at the time.
1:08.0	This labor rally at the San Francisco Convention drew some 100,000 people,
1:14.6	but then marches of that size are not unusual in San Francisco.
1:18.4	But a turnout of three or four thousand is remarkable in Dallas,
1:22.3	where political protests of any kind are a rarity.
1:25.7	That's why I say it couldn't have happened in a better place. This town needed the convention. If it's ever going to be progressive, the progressive community has to learn to work together. It has to learn the basic skills of organizing and putting on functions and things like this. They've done an excellent job. It was a good opportunity for them. It was a good experience for them. And they're now working together in a way they never would have before.
1:47.0	That's protester Ryan Hunt there speaking to Dallas local media again in 1984.
1:53.5	Well, another group was in Dallas that week, the Revolutionary Communist Youth Brigade.
2:00.3	And among them, an Atlanta native in his late
2:03.9	20s named Gregory Lee Johnson.
2:06.6	The whole expressed theme of that convention was new patriotism, bringing America back
2:11.9	prouder, stronger, and greater.
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