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National flags are not merely symbols of a country. Their colors and designs convey past history and future goals. Flags have powerfulconnotations（内涵）. They speak to the people and politicians. People of one country will burn the flag of another with whose politics they do not agree. To show their anger, students display their own nation's flags with the design altered or cut out completely. Dictators fly flags;dissidents（持不同政见者） rip them down. In every country of the world, the treatment of a flag displays an opinion or statement. Americans take the treatment of their flag seriously and in the 20th century this has become an important issue. Included in the code of ethics are such rules as the national flag cannot be used for advertising. It cannot cover a monument or any ceilings. It must not be folded while being displayed. No one should write on an American flag. Ships can lower their flags slightly in greeting each other, but otherwise should not be dipped for any other object or person. In the late 1960s, American students wore small flags sewn to the back of their jeans, symbolically insulting the American government and protesting its involvement in the Vietnam War. They burned the American flag in front of theCapitol Building（国会大厦）in Washington as a statement of protest. In the early 1990s, senators suggested an amendment to theConstitution（宪法）that would make this treatment of the flag illegal. Theproposition（提议、议案）was opposed because many others felt that this change would be a violation of Americans' constitutional rights to express their opinions freely. | 
