It’s tough to understand exactly what point Marie Kolasinski is trying to make by flying the flag upside down at her Piecemakers craft store in Costa Mesa.

She told reporter Alan Blank it’s because America is “in distress” and that it has lost its values.

Uh, well, OK. I guess we are in distress. It’s hard to argue against that. Out-of-control debt and joblessness certainly bear witness to that point. Have we lost our values? We sure have. America has become a generally fat, lazy, stupid and debt-ridden country. I could list the reasons how, but just take a look at the TV listings if you really need proof. I’ll propose Paris Hilton’s new show as Exhibit A. The video game “Grand Theft Auto” is Exhibit B. In all seriousness, though, even worse is the drip-drip of disturbing revelations about torture emerging as the clock winds down on the Bush administration.

Kolasinski’s a loose cannon who has spent time in jail after defying government authorities over inspections at her store, and, as you can see from this rant on her stay in jail, she has a tendency to ramble (to put it nicely).

At any rate, I generally despise it when people burn the flag or desecrate it in any way. They are usually jackasses just seeking attention in much the same way that racist idiots put on a white robe and hood so they can spout off their disgusting bigotry, only the flag burners at least have the courage of their dumb convictions.

I recall nearly 20 years ago when Dread Scott, an artist then studying at the Art Institute of Chicago, displayed his installation “What is the Proper Way to Display the U.S. Flag?” He invited patrons to step on a flag to leave a reply to the question in a book. I thought its main crime was pretense. But it touched off a fire-storm of protest nationally that led to a precedent-setting U.S. Supreme Court ruling on flag-burning that makes it impossible to outlaw flag desecration unless we amend the Constitution.

Let me make it clear. I love my country. I am as patriotic as they come. But I’m no love-it-or-leave-it patriot as I think that philosophy basically flies in the face of the spirit in which this country was founded. Dissent and protest — remember the Boston Tea Party in history class? — are the cornerstones of this country’s republic. If you don’t love what Thomas Paine or Thomas Jefferson wrote then you weren’t paying much attention in history class and you love something else entirely than what  America truly stands for.

We stand for liberty.

Which means we support cement heads who want to burn the flag. Or fly it upside down. We clench our teeth and bear it as we pass by.

It’s not illegal to fly the flag upside down. I’m not usually in the habit of defending one of our editorials. I think they stand on their own and I like to let the readers just have their say. There’s no need for more back-and-forth. Everyone has their say and we move on.

But when I saw some of our readers tried to make the case in the comment thread under our editorial that it’s illegal to fly the flag upside down I just had to respond. One reader even pointed us to a link on the flag code that had, as its introduction, a note about the Supreme Court decisions that make it impossible to enforce the codes.

“They have a 1st Amendment right to fly the flag upside down as a form of protest,” UC Irvine’s new law school dean, Erwin Chemerinsky, told me. He cited a few important cases, including the so-called “Peace Sticker Case” of 1974 that allowed people to attach symbols like peace signs on a flag, as well as the two flag-burning cases of 1989 and 1990.

“It doesn’t mean people won’t be upset with them, but they can’t be punished criminally or sued in civil court for it,” Chemerinsky said.

You’d be hard-pressed to find a more knowledgeable constitutional scholar than Chemerinsky. He’s widely respected throughout the legal community — liberals and conservatives alike.

By the way, it always struck me that even strict constructionist Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia voted with the majority in the flag-burning cases.

So as much as I love the flag, I would die for the right of Dread Scott or anyone else to burn the flag. You know why? Because I love my country. And that it accepts dissent as strong as that is one of the major reasons why.

I like what Justice William Brennan said in the majority opinion in Texas vs. Johnson:

“We can imagine no more appropriate response to burning a flag than waving one’s own, no better way to counter a flag burner’s message than by saluting the flag that burns, no surer means of preserving the dignity even of the flag that burned than by – as one witness here did – according its remains a respectful burial. We do not consecrate the flag by punishing its desecration, for in doing so we dilute the freedom that this cherished emblem represents.”

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