🚀 go-pugleaf

On May 8, 3:13 pm, Bob LeChevalier <loj...@lojban.org> wrote:
> "Leroy N. Soetoro" <leroysoet...@usurper.org> wrote:
>
> >http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/may/07/stinko-de-mayo/
> >On May 5, five students at Live Oak High School in Morgan Hill, Calif.,
> >were sent home for wearing clothing featuring the American flag. Their
> >offense: trespassing on Mexican heritage during Cinco de Mayo.
> >Administrators called the flag-wearing "incendiary" and likely to cause
> >violence. The school district overrode the decision, and the boys were
> >allowed to return to school. In response yesterday, about 200 students
> >staged a walkout carrying Mexican flags. The question is: Who taught
> >these kids to hate America so much?
>
> Who said that they hate America?
>
> They may just feel that unusual displays of American patriotism are an
> insult to their celebration of a distinctly Mexican patriotic and
> cultural celebration.

It's always so funny when racist illegal alien lovers comment
stupidly. Thanks for your contribution, worthless :)

>
> Kinda like singing Christmas hymns at a Hanukkah party.
>
> American flag tshirts wouldn't be especially appropriate at a
> Christmas Mass, Chinese New Year, or that Hanukah party either.  And
> patriotic as it might be, I doubt if you would be admitted to a White
> House formal dinner wearing an American flag tee shirt.
>
> >There should be nothing disrespectful about the U.S. flag to Americans
> >of Mexican descent or to any other immigrant group.
>
> There is something disrespectful about ANYTHING out-of-culture at a
> cultural celebration.
>
> >Teaching children that their heritage is at odds with their citizenship
>
> It isn't teaching that.
>
> >While the high school's administrators may have been
> >responding to a real public-safety threat, that threat was the product
> >of their failure to instill a sense of national pride in their students.
>
> Patriotism is NOT obligatory.
>
> >Identity politics has become such a staple of public life and education
> >in recent decades that incidents like this illustrate the poisonous
> >effects it has on the nation.
>
> Only when someone doesn't respect different cultural identities is
> there a problem.
>
> >In the past, immigrant groups would
> >attempt to outdo each other in demonstrating their patriotic attachment
> >to the country that gave them safety, opportunity and freedom.
>
> Sometimes.  Sometimes, not.  Chinese in California, not necessarily.
> Mexicans in what used to be part of Mexico, not necessarily.
>
> >Today, immigrant activist groups think patriotism is at best an inconvenience,
> >at worst a sellout.
>
> No, it is one possible expression of free speech.  But when done in
> the form of challenging another expression of free speech, it is
> sometimes called "fighting words".
>
> >It is odd that Cinco de Mayo has become a focus of conflict.
>
> It is only a focus of "conflict" for those Americans who seem to have
> a problem with others celebrating it.  It takes two opposing sides to
> fight, and there is no legitimate justification for fighting against
> their cultural expression.
>
> >But in the United
> >States, it has become the de facto Mexican nationalist day, a far cry
> >from its origins in the 1980s as a marketing gimmick by beer importers
> >to sell brews that taste best with lime wedges.
>
> I grew up in California in the 1960s, and it had nothing to do with
> beer.
>
> >Not all flags are created equal. Some flags may be fashion statements,
> >but the American flag is the patriotic symbol of the nation in which we
> >live.
>
> But again there are places where it is inappropriate.
>
> >Schools should spend less time telling patriotic
> >students not to cause a ruckus simply by wearing the national colors and
> >more time teaching the kids who are offended by the American flag how
> >wrongheaded their views are.
>
> They are not "offended by the American flag".  They are offended by
> those who wear the American flag as a political expression *against
> their culture*.
>
> >This might require teachers and
> >administrators to begin making value judgments and moral choices for the
> >benefit of the children they are charged with educating.
>
> Teachers and administrators should not be doing so.  That is a
> parental choice.
>
> >The Stars and Stripes should be a proud statement of unity for all.
>
> The flag stands for whatever people want it to stand for.  Not
> everyone sees in it the same symbol that you do.
>
> lojbab
> ---
> Bob LeChevalier - artificial linguist; genealogist
> loj...@lojban.org   Lojban languagewww.lojban.org