The Right State

I have been hesitant to discuss the banning of all flags by the Oceanside Unified school district until now.  If this was going to be more about the immigration issue, then I would not have been interested.  With that said, I would like to respond to whomever in the school district that made such an asinine decision. Having been a school teacher myself, I can understand the district wanting to remove anything that would distract the students from learning.  I once removed a 14 year old boy from class because he had painted his fingernails black.  It was a distraction to the rest of the class.

I can also see removing other distractions from class, so that teachers can teach. Teachers are supposed to be able to teach history, government, civics, and a love of our country.  The classes I taught included blacks, whites, Hispanics, Orientals; all of them learning about the things that made this country great and how their ancestors contributed to the greatness of this country.  I am willing to bet that in some students in some of the more liberal enclaves, like California and the Northeast, the students did not stand up for the recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance.  I am willing to bet they did not learn a love of and an appreciation for America through its history.  Even now, many of these same colleges do not want to allow military recruiters on their campuses.

We are a great country because we have harnessed the power of the people under one banner.  The United States has become this great country is a very short amount of time.  Freedom was our founder’s rallying cry.  Our nation has become great because of the differences in our people along with a structure which allows us to grow: democracy and capitalism.  We as a country can trace our historical roots through the Magna Carta, the Mayflower Compact, the Declaration of Independence, and our Constitution.

As a former teacher, I support our kids flying the American flag wherever they go.  It gives them pride, it helps them support America with all its flaws, because it is still the greatest nation of earth.

As a veteran of our nation’s military, I am very proud of our nation’s heritage as well as the symbol of our heritage: the Stars and Stripes, Old Glory.  Our men and women have been fighting and dying for this nation even before its birth.  They died in the American Revolution, they died in the War of 1812, the died in the Spanish-American War, World War I, World War II, Korea, Vietnam, Persian Gulf War, the War on Terror and several others in between.  These men and women fought and died to protect this nation and they carried the flag of the United States before them.  These same soldiers fighting and dying in Afghanistan and Iraq carry the American flag with them.  And now the privilege of carrying this same flag that meant so much to our soldiers, that meant so much to our warriors fighting for us now, this same flag is now being denied to the students of Oceanside?

If our kids do not learn this history of the United States, a love of country, a love of the flag which is our country’s symbol, then where are we headed?  The continued success of our nation is dependent on our children understanding what they are fighting for, else it all might be for naught.  As Irving Dilliard once wrote:

I often wonder whether we do no rest our hopes too much upon constitutions, upon laws and upon courts.  These are false hopes; believe me, these are false hopes.  Liberty lies in the hearts of men and women; when it dies there, no constitution, no law, no court can save it.

The students of Oceanside deserve to be proud of this nation’s history.  Its time to let them feel pride in flying the American flag too.

Tags: Immigration, Culture, War //