The Articles of Confederation were a lengthy list essentially made up of laws and rights adopted by the Continental Congress and given to the newly founded nation of America on November 15th, 1777. Not all states ratified the Articles of Confederation until 1781, based on the differing demographics and needs in the original thirteen colonies. Back then, just like now, there were disagreements. The Articles of Confederation where drafted and made official amidst the end of the Revolutionary War, which rejected and overthrew the British Monarchies overwhelming authority. With all of the revolutions, including the Boston Tea Party, there were armies developed, such as George Washington's Continental Army, that fought to their death to overthrow tyrannical rule under the British Government. We now have several branches of military that eat, sleep and breathe protecting their home ground and we are blessed.

You may be asking yourself "What does this have to do with burning the American Flag?" I will tell you. You see, the American Flag represents far more than our country. It represents our history, our struggles, and our victories. The flag represents the men, back in the day, who fought for freedom of arguably horrific British rule. For example, the Triangular Trade was enacted on our soil by European powers, and is the force to blame for the slavery that our nation was strong enough to abolish. Back then, citizens weren't able to walk around and do as they please, because there was an unjust amount of regulation and authority omitted into their lives.

Our flag represents our civil rights, the foundation that has given African Americans, women, children, and the LGBT community the opportunity to live life the way that they were forbidden from before. Our flag represents our military who are ACROSS the globe fighting to keep us safe, and you're just going to burn it? You're going to burn something that we raise high when we lose a soldier, and something that families are given when they lose their soldier?

Our nation wasn't perfect then, and it certainly is not perfect now. The American Flag represents our country as a whole, not only for what it stands for, but for the hardships that every citizen and group has been able to overcome. For the deaths in the Revolutionary War, in the Civil War, in the Iraq War, and all of the wars, for all of the people who were and are much more brave than most of us. The American Flag became exactly that when people came together and were strong enough to overcome unjust realities. Shortly after the Articles of Confederation were written they were replaced by our current Constitution. Our country, The United States of America, is becoming far more divisive than need be, but this is not the first time we have to overcome so much, and will continue to overcome the things we see as unconstitutional and immoral.

We will never come into contact with someone who believes in a mirror image of what we see as right for our whole country. We will never rise above division and above war if we do not come together. We can be better. We can be stronger and we can be powerful. Burning the flag does not prove a point that is worth considering; it is an act that is unjustifiable and truly disgraceful. Times have changed, things are broadcasted much more negatively than they used to be. People are getting killed in the streets for their race, or their employment, or for no reason at all. Children are scared, whether they are white, black, blue, purple, yellow, it does not matter; there are innocent people living in fear because of the things that WE can control.

If everyone stopped believing in the importance of always being diverse in our beliefs and coming to a point of major conflict to decide who is right, we could work together toward a goal that helps everyone. We cannot control who becomes President any longer, we cannot control what someone chooses to do when they wake up in the morning, or who lives and who dies, but what we CAN control is the hate that burns so deeply in our culture. This is not how we are. This is not America. Americans don't burn the flag, they don't discriminate against cultural and racial diversity: things that we are FOUNDED on. This is the Land of the Free, and the Home of the Brave. We are free to do what we see fit for ourselves, and for our families, but there becomes a point that there is an overlap of hate and love: war.

If people want to protest peacefully, and fight for what is right, let them! Kudos to you if you are respectable enough to go out and stand up for what you believe without contradicting your goal of peace. You deserve a standing ovation if you believe in peace, and you work toward that without blocking highways, and vandalizing property, and hurting those who don't feel as deeply toward what you feel. We are founded on diversity not on division. We are founded on peace and love: something we need to work to attain once more. Agree to disagree, stop speaking over those who deserve to be heard, and stop believing your opinion is worth more than your neighbors. Choose love over hate and fight for safety, not for war.

The American Flag represents our hardships, and our victories and will continue to represent our ability as a country to live and love as we all should. The flag represents the men who were forced into war to protect our soil, the men that chose to protect us, and the women who worked for the rights to do things like work along side men in the military to defend their home. Burning the American flag does not prove a point that our government is being unfair. It proves that you do not have the ability to see more than what is right in front of you' that you cannot appreciate the things that people risked their lives and left their families to give you the opportunity to do. If you burn the flag trying to prove a point that has so many other ways to be voiced, shame on you. Shame on you for believing that destroying something that represents the strength of our nation will have a positive correlation with what you see as fit. Shame on you for being unable to respect the things that you have never seen, like the lives that have been and will be lost in war. You are not just burning a flag, you are burning our constitution and the memory of those who actually fought to make a difference in our world.

If you burn OUR flag, shame on you.