I believe the flag MEANS something, it isn't just some blue, red and white cloth sewn together in a certain way. It is what that symbolizes that is important.
My dad's casket was wheeled in under the flag of the Catholic Church, and seeing it had very little effect on me. But seeing my dad buried under this flag, by these men, had a very different effect on me:
When people debase or burn a flag, that bothers me because I know that people like my father, myself and Chainmail have served under that flag, many have died and been buried under it, and it MEANS something. It isn't at all trivial to me and many others, even though it seems to be simply physical cloth.
In Vietnam, our POW's in some cells made a ritual out of saying the pledge of allegiance in front of a tattered, hand-sewn flag made from scraps of cloth. They did it every day they could, in defiance of the guards, and had to keep the flag carefully hidden lest it be discovered and rewarded with a beating, or worse. But these guys did it. They showed respect to it in circumstances I cannot even imagine.
I do feel that we are showing a form of disrespect by using the flag in this way, but worse, is the impact doing so must absolutely have on our national psyche.