I have a Google alert to any stories that involve violations of the Stolen Valor Act. The McManus case peaked my interest even more and I find it despicable that people would feign to present themselves as heroes and veterans when no such honor or title was theirs to flaunt. People like that should be rolled up and stood before a firing squad of real heroes whose name they besmirch.
But, that’s just my opinion and it isn’t worth a hill of beans. In the end, I don’t agree with myself on that point. Confused? Allow me to flush this out because I think that the so-called Stolen Valor Act of 2005 is redundant, unnecessary and, yes, unconstitutional.
As one of the reasons cited by Congress as a need to pass this legislation, they said that legislation is necessary to “to protect the reputation and meaning of military decorations and medals.” It boggles my mind that our elected officials are so concerned with the “reputation” of a piece of medal and cloth. I never realized that inanimate objects were protected under the Constitution. But, the law reads, specifically:
Whoever falsely represents himself or herself, verbally or in writing, to have been awarded any decoration or medal authorized by Congress for the Armed Forces of the United States, any of the service medals or badges awarded to the members of such forces, the ribbon, button, or rosette of any such badge, decoration, or medal, or any colorable imitation of such item shall be fined under this title, imprisoned not more than six months, or both.
Now, let me quote another law – the supreme law of the land:
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
Before I continue, we need to define a few key terms used in the First Amendment of the United States Constitution.
Abridge: to reduce or lessen in duration, scope, authority, etc.; diminish; curtail.
Freedom: exemption from external control, interference, regulation, etc.; the power to determine action without restraint.
Speech: the faculty or power of speaking; oral communication; ability to express one’s thoughts and emotions by speech sounds and gesture; the act of speaking; something that is spoken; an utterance, remark, or declaration.
In other words, the First Amendment could easily be translated to say:
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or curtailing with regulation, interference or control any form of speaking, communication, sound or gesture, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
But, that’s exactly what the Stolen Valor Act did. It – to revert back to Constitutional language – “abridged the freedom of speech.”
Now, don’t get me wrong, I think it’s despicable that people try to pass themselves off as someone they’re not. I hate it when people pretend they’re not fat slobs too, but I have no control over that either. I hate when people pretend to be rich and famous or know powerful politicians to get their way. People do and say a lot of stupid things, but being stupid is protected under the founding document of this country along with the Declaration of Independence.
One of the grievances that precipitated the Declaration was that the King of Great Britain was creating “a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.” We’re seeing that today in many areas, including this ill-advised Act. We are now harassing people because they want to pretend to be someone they aren’t.
So, you may be asking yourself, well what the hell, CJ? Should we just ignore these people? Absolutely not!!
Repeal the Stolen Valor Act immediately. Let the people deal with this morons. We have a national media and, even better, some of the best bloggers and organizations dedicated to exposing these people. They are free to exercise their right to be liars, braggarts, and pompous asses, but we are also free to expose them publicly and embarrass the hell out of them. Prison time or fines for playing dress up is just stupid and doesn’t solve anything. I say we continue what we’re doing to expose these people and sacrifice them at the alter of public humiliation. I’m willing to bet that constant harassment every time they wear an unauthorized uniform or medals would be enough to convince them to get straight.
Now, where I believe that laws should apply to these fakers is when they lie to obtain things that they wouldn’t otherwise be entitled to. It’s called “fraud” and there are stiff penalties for it. Fraud is “deceit, trickery, sharp practice, or breach of confidence, perpetrated for profit or to gain some unfair or dishonest advantage.” Every state has laws against fraud and those are the laws that should apply in these “stolen valor” cases.
The name of the damn Act makes no sense anyway. From whom are they “stealing” valor anyway? They didn’t steal MY valor and I would posit that they haven’t “stolen” anyone else’s, either. All they’ve done is stolen their own honor and integrity. But, the moment they attempt to gain pleasure, profit, or personal safety from someone else then should they be charged with fraud and dealt with accordingly. I personally don’t see anything wrong with a guy in a bar trying to pick up chicks because he wants to “look cool” to others. Those people are sad and pathetic, but they shouldn’t be charged with a crime. When people spend money to bring said sad and pathetic person to a parade or speech, then we have issues!
I know that my position on this is probably not shared by most of my peers, especially in the milblogging community. But, I would my detractors to really think about it. Is your support of the Stolen Valor Act based on your personal opinions and emotions or the law – the Constitution? My personal opinion is that is SHOULD be against the law, but it CAN’T! Not without repealing the First Amendment.
