Biographical:

To learn more about Toni Smith, here's a profile from Manhattanville College basketball team’s Web pages.

Cultural:

Here's a great place to find background information on issues related to the flag. Click on this timeline presentation of the legal history of flag protection, free speech and freedom of religion issues surrounding it, and of prohibitions against its use in political protest and advertising.

Want to find an objective look at this emotional issue? Here's a June 4, 2003 report prepared by the U.S. Congressional Research Service on the history of the U.S. flag protection issue and summaries of two key U.S. Supreme Court decisions on the matter.

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) Web page on flag desecration as it relates to free speech lays out the ACLU position on the issue and details their opposition to the proposed U.S constitutional amendment prohibiting flag desecration. The site contains links to a number of resources supporting their position on the issue.

Should congress and the American people pass an amendment to the constitution banning desecration of the flag? To read support for such an amendment go to the home page of The Citizens Flag Alliance.

Senator John McCain has been a prominent supporter of a constitutional amendment to ban desecration of the U.S. flag. Here is a statement he made in 1999 in support of the amendment. An insight into the source of his views on the matter can be found in a 1988 speech before the Republican National Convention. Most of the speech is devoted to praising the Republican party, Ronald Reagan, and George H.W. Bush, but a significant part of the speech is an affecting story about the American flag from McCain’s time as a prisoner of war in Vietnam.