The July 1 Daily quoted Steffen Schmidt, “I’m not comfortable at all with the government telling people what they can and can’t do.”

Surely that was a misquote or taken out of context. Federal, state and local governments have volumes of laws telling people what they can and can’t do.

I’d put the flag amendment in the same category as hate crimes. Why is it a hate crime to burn a cross but okay to burn the American flag? It is just a case of who’s ox is being gored or who feels infringed upon by the act.

Many are confusing “freedom of speech” with the destruction of property, which only by convoluted thinking can be described as speech, the Supreme Court not withstanding.

Palmer J. Holden

Animal science extension