Columbia, SC — Take any country in the world. Now go there and burn its flag and see what’s going to happen. If you’re lucky, police officers will get there first. If not, the public will show you how they feel about you burning their flag.

Send Chapin High teacher Scott Compton, who stomped the U.S. flag as part of a class lesson, to a VA hospital to explain himself and thank veterans for making it possible for him to express his opinion and exercise his freedom of speech. He should be required to do so not as a punishment but as a life lesson, something he tried to do for his students.

Kris Kulac

Irmo