While Watt has forged a good relationship with veterans here in his work for the national cemetery and veterans hospital, he also had recognized that many vets were troubled over his stand against the flag-burning amendment.

So he called for Wednesday’s meeting at Rufty’s Market in downtown Salisbury to clear the air. Watt and the veterans had a healthy, civil exchange. The Democratic congressman from Charlotte didn’t back down from his position, and neither did the veterans, most of whom strongly support the proposed amendment.

“Idon’t expect to change anybody’s views,” Watt said, but he added that his position wasn’t that much different from the veterans’ views.

Veterans are interested in protecting the country’s symbol because of what it stands for. In opposing the amendment, Watt said, he’s trying to protect the same principles.

Watt said he has as much respect for the flag and thinks he is as patriotic as any American. He would personally never express his displeasure with the country by burning the flag, stomping on it or the like, he added.

But the flag symbolizes the things Americans value about the country, and one of those tenets is the right of a person to disagree, Watt said. An American’s freedom to freely express his disagreements makes the country unique — even if one of those forms is burning the flag, Watt said.

His stand against the flag-burning amendment isn’t a disrespect for the flag, Watt added.

“It has everything to do with a healthy respect of the flag,” he said.

Bob Yarborough, a local veteran, told Watt that the Washington Monument, Jefferson Memorial and Monticello are national symbols, not unlike the flag. And laws protect those symbols from anyone trying to destroy or vandalize them, he said.

Why shouldn’t laws protect the flag, Yarborough asked.

“Could I go to Washington and deface the Washington Monument?” he asked.

Watt noted that laws do protect the flag. A person cannot burn, steal, destroy or vandalize someone else’s flag. But the Supreme Court has ruled that the burning of a person’s own flag as a form of expression and protest is protected by the Constitution, Watt said.

“I don’t think they’re expressing themselves when they burn the flag,” Yarborough said.

Another veteran said he likes to look at many of today’s constitutional questions as if the founding fathers were still alive several years after the Constitution had been written.

Would they have eliminated prayer in school and hangings for murder based on what the Constitution says, he asked. He doubts they would.

If anyone would have burned the flag in their day, he added, that person probably would have been shot.

Watt voted against the amendment in the House, where it passed and has moved on to the Senate. The measure would eventually require a two-thirds ratification by the states if it gets that far.

One veteran asked Watt why he didn’t abstain from the vote, since it overwhelmingly passed.

“It has never been my nature to take a walk on a vote,” Watt said.

Another veteran asked Watt if he had ever taken a poll of his district on the flag issue.

Watt said he has never taken a poll on this or any other issue, and he conceded that a majority in his district would support the amendment.

But he saw his oath to uphold and defend the Constitution as a solemn commitment. Watt is the ranking minority member on the House Subcommittee on the Constitution.

“Things that are sacrosanct in the Constitution are not subject to public polls,” he added.

Marcelle Williams has long lobbied for the constitutional amendment to protect the flag. He raised the flag amendment issue with Watt six or seven years ago at their first meeting.

In thanking Watt for meeting with the veterans, Williams predicted they might be talking about this same amendment 10 years from now.

Interestingly, Watt started his day in Rowan County Wednesday by delivering a new U.S. flag to Corriher-Lipe Middle School in Landis.

The schools’ U.S. and N.C. flags were damaged in a storm last year, and the school asked Watt’s office to secure a new U.S. flag that had flown briefly over the U.S. Capitol.

With Watt in attendance Wednesday morning, the school conducted what he described as a “profound ceremony’ to retire the old U.S. flag by a proper burning.