Just Because You Can, Doesn't Mean You Should...

Pastor Terry Jones has decided that his church will not burn the Koran on September 11 in protest of the Muslim involvement in terrorism against the United States. This is a good thing. Desecrating religious icons that a people hold sacred is not something we as Americans should do. Oh, we Americans have no problem desecrating sacred things – it happens all the time – it just isn’t something we should do. However, the reason that the Koran burning was cancelled is not right. There is only one reason it should not take place – because it is just plain wrong. Yet the arguments against it have been because of threats of violence, increased recruiting by Al Qaeda, and set-back in diplomatic relationships with Muslim nations. Free speech should never be silenced by threats of violence or because other nations don’t want to hear it. Our freedoms are too precious to be silenced by threats. Yet to use free speech as the reason to desecrate and offend is no better than what those in other countries do when they burn our flag or destroy Christian or Jewish icons, and certainly no better than the losers in this country who burn their own flag in protest or desecrate holy icons and call it “art”.

It has always been the means of petty people to protest by desecrating sacred things. The American flag being one of the most used icons for this type desecration. Recently, a Mexican business in Reno flew the flag of the United States below the Mexican flag – this is actually illegal. A veteran took matters into his own hands and went up and cut the American flag down and took it. Did the veteran do something wrong? Probably, but civil disobedience is sometimes appropriate! One of the greatest things that I saw happened at a major league baseball game in 1976. Rick Monday of the Chicago Cubs did something that perhaps all of us should do when we see the protestors take our sacred icons and attempt to desecrate them. Following are his words as he explains what happened that day and what he felt when he saw what two protestors tried to do:

In between the top and bottom of the fourth inning, I was just getting loose in the outfield, throwing the ball back and forth. Jose Cardenal was in left field and I was in center. I don't know if I heard the crowd first or saw the guys first, but two people ran on the field. After a number of years of playing, when someone comes on the field, you don't know what's going to happen. Is it because they had too much to drink? Is it because they're trying to win a bet? Is it because they don't like you or do they have a message that they're trying to present?

When these two guys ran on the field, something wasn't right. And it wasn't right from the standpoint that one of them had something cradled under his arm. It turned out to be an American flag. They came from the left-field corner, went past Cardenal to shallow left-center field.

That's when I saw the flag. They unfurled it as if it was a picnic blanket. They knelt beside it, not to pay homage but to harm it as one of the guys was pulling out of his pocket somewhere a big can of lighter fluid. He began to douse it.

What they were doing was wrong… It's the way I was raised. My thoughts were reinforced with my six years in the Marine Corp Reserves. It was also reinforced by a lot of friends who lost their lives protecting the rights and freedoms that flag represented.

So I started to run after them. To this day, I couldn't tell you what was running through my mind except I was mad, I was angry and it was wrong for a lot of reasons.

Then the wind blew the first match out. There was hardly ever any wind at Dodger Stadium. The second match was lit, just as I got there. I did think that if I could bowl them over, they can't do what they're trying to do.

I saw them go and put the match down to the flag. It's soaked in lighter fluid at this time. Well, they can't light it if they don't have it. So I just scooped it up.

After the guys left, there was a buzz in the stands, people being aghast with what had taken place. Without being prompted, and I don't know where it started, but people began to sing 'God Bless America.' When I reflect back upon it now, I still get goose bumps.

Here is a short video clip of Rick Monday performing the greatest “save” in major league baseball.


Our nation has fought and bled too much for our freedoms to be stifled from threats, whether real or perceived. It is wrong to burn the Koran, or the Bible, or the Book of Mormon, or the Flag, or any other icon considered sacred. But it’s not wrong because of threats of violence; it is wrong because we Americans should be above that kind of petty display. Free speech is worth fighting for and yes, dying for. The unalienable right of free speech is sacred, and as such carries responsibility when exercised. But just because we can do or say something doesn’t mean we should.