Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, June 15, 1990                   TAG: 9006150047
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Medium

LAWMAKERS SET STAGE FOR FLAG AMENDMENT FRAY/

"Today, in quiet glory, the Stars and Stripes continue to proclaim the shining promise of America," Bush said in a statement released after he visited the memorial. He proclaimed not only Flag Day but Flag Week.

He said nothing about the proposed constitutional amendment, which passed its first hurdle in the House on Wednesday, two days after the Supreme Court threw out last year's flag protection law.

The Senate Judiciary Committee plans a hearing next week on the measure and sponsors are predicting that a vote will come before the Fourth of July.

On Main Streets across the nation, Americans decked front porches with American flags in honor of the day.

Bush called on "all Americans to observe Flag Day and Flag Week by flying the Stars and Stripes from their homes and other suitable places."

Later, veterans in American Legion and Amvets caps, along with camera-carrying tourists, swarmed over Capitol Hill where rows of American flags hung limp in the heat while lawmakers poured forth Flag Day oratory.

Sen. Bob Kerrey, D-Neb., who won the Medal of Honor in Vietnam, called the push for a flag amendment "an attempt to divide America, to divide fathers against sons." He said it would reopen "the generation gap" of the Vietnam era.

Kerrey held up a picture of Bush laughing at a White House meeting as Sen. Bob Dole, R-Kan., held a flag - a picture, the senator said, that showed the real point of the debate was to gain "political advantage."

"He has chosen to divide his country on an issue that, frankly, in my opinion, should not be given this much attention," Kerrey later told a rally of congressional veterans against the amendment.

Sen. John C. Danforth, R-Mo., parting company with conservative colleagues, took the Senate floor to oppose the amendment.

"We, thank God, do not live in a brittle, fragile country, because in our country anybody is free to express himself," Danforth said.

Townspeople of Northfield, Minn., awoke to find 3,000 small plastic flags planted in their lawns by employees of a real-estate company "as an important part of our heritage." But one local critic grumbled that it was "an intrusive political statement."

The issue was rekindled Monday when the Supreme Court, in a 5-4 decision, threw out as unconstitutional a federal law approved last year that would have banned burning and other desecration of the American flag.

Dole, the Senate Republican leader, took the floor to declare that the Senate has already delayed too long in acting on the proposed amendment.

He scoffed at the notion that flag burning represents free speech and thus should not be outlawed. "It's malicious, stupid, irresponsible conduct, not speech," Dole said.