Right, but aren’t ideals pretty much unattainable? Ideals are goals you set that are out of reach, but cause you to strive to do better. I certainly don’t think that protesting the flag, or burning it, should be illegal, but I’m not really sure I see the point to be honest. Outside of a couple anarchists who believe that all nations should be totally abolished, I haven’t really met anyone who is opposed to this geographic area being a country called “The United States of America”. People can argue about individual practices and policies of the nation, but to attribute those attributes to a flag is silly. It would be like if the governor of your state passed legislation that you opposed, so you burned the state flag on the capitol grounds. It’s well within your rights, but what’s the point? It doesn’t solve anything. You’ll still be living in the state after you burn the flag, so why waste the energy on it rather than work to change the legislation you disagree with?