Mr. Chairman and members of the Judiciary Committee, my name is Gary Wetzel. I am a resident of Oak Creek, Wisconsin, a combat veteran of the Vietnam War and one of the men who wears the Medal of Honor. I am grateful for the invitation to be here to join the many citizens in this country who believe the people should decide if their flag is to be protected from physical desecration. I am honored to testify in support of the proposed flag protection constitutional amendment.

In preparation for my appearance here today, I have tried to reason how, or why, anyone would willingly and maliciously deface the American flag. Of greatest concern to me is knowing that some people want to protect and defend flag desecration as “speech” and to provide such grotesque behavior with the highest level of legal protection. This just should not be. And it shocks me that I, or anyone, would have to take a stand in support of our flag when protecting the flag seems such a natural thing – and the right thing – for every American to do.

There are great lessons in the flag, in its origin and its great history. But I am not here to praise a relic of the past. I am here to help preserve that banner for the future. I am here because I know that holding the line on American values is important to my country’s youngest citizens, and I can think of now way better than the flag of the United States of America to exemplify, for them, those values.

Young people are our nation’s most precious asset, and I have a special concern for those who live in the inner-city. When I talk to these kids about what it means to be a good citizen, I speak of “yesterday’s sacrifices.” I tell them of citizens from our history, and I knew many, who gave their lives for their home, their family, their country. Yes, even for their flag. In this challenging urban environment, that offers little and demands much, I am constantly amazed out how these children listen, and how they genuinely recognize not only the sacrifice and devotion of our nation’s great heroes but also that defending the flag for which their forefathers gave so much is important, and the right thing to do.

Indeed, our children are our greatest treasure, and sometimes our best teachers. Please listen to the words of Noelle Anne Meyer, a senior at River Falls Senior High School in Roberts, Wisconsin, who wrote: “The American flag symbolizes a nation that President Lincoln described as the ‘last, best hope on earth.’ Most Americans know that the flag is more than just a fabric with colors. When it passes in parades, people stand taller; when youngsters look at it and recite the Pledge of Allegiance, they see more than just a banner hanging on a stick. When it covers a casket, it is our country’s way of honoring a loved one or friend . . . . So it is with our flag, as it stands proud, that we pledge to protect it, a right of the people . . . the right thing to do.”

During my tour of duty in Vietnam, I lived 18 months in a tent, thinking often about hot water, clean sheets, dry socks and other things most folks seldom reflect on. Things like going to the bathroom in peace . . . rather than in a 50-gallon drum while under enemy fire. This seems hardly a subject for discussion within these walls and before this panel. Yet, I am not terribly uncomfortable mentioning it, knowing that the Supreme Court of the State of Wisconsin has elevated these bodily functions to the highest form of protected speech under the Constitution of the United States of America.

Just last week that court ruled on the constitutionality of the Wisconsin flag protection statute. This was the final appeal that addressed the behavior of Matthew Janssen of Appleton, Wisconsin, who publicly defecated on a flag that was the property of someone else. The court said that those who would defecate on the flag of the United States – theirs or another’s – are merely exercising their First Amendment rights. With decisions like this one, I sometimes wonder if our judges have fallen out of step with the citizens of this country, who perhaps have less difficulty recognizing the difference between words and waste.

Mr. Chairman and members of this Committee, protecting the flag is the people’s will. Our nation’s citizens are speaking out in support of the flag protection amendment by an overwhelming majority. So are our nation’s veterans, who embrace to their very souls the right to free speech and who risked death to protect it. The people’s will is reflected in the actions of the forty-nine state legislatures that have asked Congress to send the flag protection amendment to the States for ratification and of the U.S. House of Representatives, which has voted in overwhelming and bipartisan support for the flag amendment.

I urge this Committee and the Senate to listen to the people’s will: to cherish, honor, love and safeguard under the law the living symbol or our nation’s soul and strength, the embodiment of the many rights and responsibilities that empower us and unite us.

Thank you.