For Americans, the vision of a protester interrupting a U.S. president’s public remarks is unspectacular. Not so for leaders of many other countries where open and vigorous dissent isn’t protected as it is here.

Remember Cindy Sheehan’s anti-war camp-out at Crawford, Texas? Could any image send a stronger signal to the rest of the world about the United States’ commitment to liberty? Not likely.

Imagine what would have become of Wenyi Wang if she had tried that in Beijing? Or if she had harangued Chinese President Hu Jintau in China the way she did during a press conference last week at the White House, where Hu was visiting. All that did happen is that President Bush, who’s had plenty of experience with hecklers, quietly reassured Hu, “You’re OK,” and urged him to continue with his comments. Which Hu did.

In the end, Wang, a Chinese American whose Falun Gong religion is banned in China, got her say. So did Hu. A previous introduction to freedom of political expression occurred in Seattle where Hu’s arrival in the United States was marked by uneventful protests on behalf of Falun Gong and advocates of a free Tibet. Washington Gov. Chris Gregoire, who like Bush and other American politicians is familiar with boisterous protest demonstrations, saw it as no big deal.

That’s the way this country deals with conflict of opinion. We don’t just tolerate it, we ritualize it.

And the world – having seen one example after another spotlighted on the front pages, the evening news and the Internet – realizes we mean it. Critics shout condemnations at their leaders. Life goes on.

Not every American has full confidence in freedom of expression, however.

U.S. Sen. Orrin Hatch is proposing, again, a constitutional amendment making it unlawful to desecrate the American flag. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., intends to bring the measure to a vote in the Senate this summer.

“An attack on the flag is an attack on our country and her people,” says Frist.

Flag-burning, odious as it is, is not an attack, Senator, it’s a criticism. Life goes on.

But when the United States can no longer endure criticism, the rest of the world will have less reason to trust that we’re materially different from places like China.