Like Secretary's Day (now Administrative Assistant's Day), and Grandparent's Day and even Mother's and Father's Day we commercialize non-events until we elevate them to sacredness. Once we celebrated George Washington's and Abraham Lincoln's birthdays. But we merged them into a non-descript President's Day and then submerged it as a school holiday below the significance of Martin Luther King Day.
There was an Armistice Day which became a more generic Veteran's Day and has now disappeared from recognition most everywhere but banks and Post Offices. Students certainly aren't aware that I have been able to discern.
But, if we can sell some greeting cards or flowers or candy or costumes or decorations, we will elevate even non-descript events to sacred holidays, which we must remember is a convolution of "holy days" in our language.
So with the Fifth of May. Cinco de Mayo is a time to sell Corona beer and Jose Cuervo, just as St. Patrick's day is for Guiness and Jameson's. Cinco de Mayo is not an American holiday. It commemorates a battle in Mexico. It isn't Mexican Independence Day and it isn't nationally celebrated in Mexico. It is localized mostly around Puebla where the battle occurred between 4,000 Mexicans and 8,000 French. The Mexicans won. Beyond that it didn't have much impact on events for either Mexico or the USA.
What then to make of this:
American Flag Incendiary at School
Why should students in an American high school be offended by the image of the nation's flag? Why should the day matter in the slightest? Who suffers this deep insult? Are they not Americans as well?
Respect other cultures. The Mexican culture is a rich one laden with history, art, music, cuisine, tradition, dance and more. Their history is long and varied. It is worthy of study and consideration as well as ours. But, this is America and the fifth of May is not any more significant to America than any other day and actually less significant than quite a few. The belief that Americans, whether of Mexican heritage or any other background, would be offended by sighting of the flag is outrageous in an extreme.
A school which would support any student expressing insult by our flag is not one which should be supported by parents, teachers, the community or our tax dollars. Students who would find themselves offended need to be corrected, instructed, and encouraged to do a large measure of growing up.
Remember the Alamo, Goliad and San Jacinto. Forget about Puebla for a while.
4 comments:
I was stunned by this, I cannot imagine disallowing people to dress in a manner that is normally acceptable because of a foreign national holiday. It's crazy and the comments by those who were offended by the kids wearing the shirts were just plain assinine.
Amen, Ed! Your point is simple and very valid. Sadly, though, I can't say I'm surprised this happened; folks simply don't use their heads anymore. Common sense? Gone. Rational thought? Gone. A stout set of cajones? Gone.
To take this from another POV. I'm not sure that the AP wasn't wrong. California has long been sowing those seeds of Aztlan and Reconquista and it's entirely likely they are coming to fruition. Those kids may very likely have been in danger. We weren't there, and shouldn't hastily judge the folks in the line of fire, but if that's the case in the little microcosm of California on his campus, the principal and AP should have sent students home with either flag on display.
Inexcusable.
The Amercian people have go to make it clear that this is will no tbe tolerated. The students must sue the school. When I was growing up almost everyone's dad either fought in WWII or Korea, or both. Our dads would have been all over that principle.
There are a lot of people in power who don't like this country, its traditions, its laws, and its institutions. Two examples:
Bloomberg the gun grabber:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/05/05/AR2010050503670.html
Congressman Andre Carson says Tea Party supporters are a threat to internal security:
http://biggovernment.com/sright/2010/05/06/rep-andre-carson-tea-party-protesters-are-one-of-the-largest-threats-to-our-internal-security/
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