Why are people surprised a small group of college students would exercise their rights to ban the American flag? The real issue should be how we deal with this clear sign of ingratitude.
Big picture
Honestly what bothers me the most is not this one incident, but the countless attacks on our way of life. To say I’m pissed is an understatement, but we can’t allow our emotions to dictate our actions. Instead we all need to take a closer look at the effect this “death by 1,000 cuts” strategy is doing to our landscape. More importantly we cannot just sit by and allow this or other small incidents go unchecked.
It doesn’t matter
Granted, the student ban was overturned and the originators are no where to be found. Why is that you ask, because the backlash at seeing the mention of banned was enough to solicit thousands of responses. I’m sure many of them were not too polite, but the message was pretty damn clear…don’t tread on me!
Stay alert and act
We have to accept there will be more incidents such as this American Flag ban and we as a collective need to send a very clear message that reckless behavior such as this will not be tolerated and in some cases severely challenged. I believe we are all guilty, myself included of being a little lighthearted about some of these attacks. You think to yourself, “they are harmless and won’t amount to much”. Unfortunately they have, when a student body somehow feels this was ok, we’ve got a problem. For some reason we have created an environment where this type of behavior is acceptable. I was reading a survey discussing how this new generation of 20 something are “patriotic”, but just in a different way. Umm…not! They have perverted the sense of equality to mean everybody gets a juice box. That is again another huge mistake, equality means everyone gets a chance and performance should be the governor.
Cause and effect, for real
Aside from getting involved and staying involved there needs to be a clear set of consequences for this type of recklessness. I’m all for exploring and discovering, but that doesn’t mean you get a free pass. You’ll have to deal with the fallout and that might not be too pretty. Maybe you should think through your need to be apologetic or in this case offensive. Maybe you should confer with those with wiser council, speak to your peers and elders on the subject and save us all some grief.
Gratitude
That’s the PG version of my thought process. Believe me, I had more colorful language over the weekend and honestly I was pleasantly surprised to see the school itself come down with a nice hammer blow to this student body. It’s about time and my hope is it was genuine and not fueled by public pressure. Maybe there is hope in our educational institutions, maybe this is the type of message that is needed to wake up the slumbering giant. I think this would make a great example to bring up to our younger generation about cause and effect. It would also be a great way to reinforce national pride and gratitude. I don’t care what some survey says, the bottom line is if the American Flag offends you then get the fuck out!!!
I’m offended and I’m not going to take it anymore
All I can say is I’m personally offended by these students gesture, that it would even make it to a vote. I would seriously question the campus and whether I want to support their activities. While a state funded school, they still need tuitions and families still have a choice as to where they want to send their children. I would speculate actions such as this would have a negative effect on enrollment despite the schools actions to overrule the ban. I’m also not interested in hearing excuses or being upset about some negativity. If it happened under your watch , then step up to the plate and accept responsibility then look at why it happened and work at a resolution.
Maybe gratitude, consideration and selflessness should be subjects our schools teach, maybe we all need to be more grateful.
