You may have seen a report on Bill O'Reilly's the Factor tonight about 5 students who were sent home by a California high school for wearing shirts with the American flag on 5 de mayo. The move was reportedly to prevent a reaction by the school's Mexican/Mexican American students who were celebritating the Mexican holiday. There is more to the story.
The John and Ken show on KFI 640 am in Los Angeles had additional details this afternoon. The school involved is Live Oak High School in the small town of Morgan Hill. When the students' punishment was decreased, about 200 Latino students marched out of school. They were reportedly not satisfied with the punishment meted out to the five students for displaying the American flag.
John and Ken also spoke on the phone with a woman who stated she was a housewife in Morgan Hill who happened to be caught up in the march. When she pulled out an American flag, she stated that she and her car were set upon by a group of marchers forcing her to run a red light to escape-at which point she was stopped by a cop. According to the woman's account, the cop told her he had been told by his supervisor to arrest her. Since the town is so small, she actually knew the cop and they talked it out without any further problem-at least for her.
Another example of political correctness in action. What's next? Are we going to ban the American flag?
15 comments:
An obvious question to pose to the Mexican American students is why they feel the display of the American flag is a threat to their enjoyment of Cinqo do Mayo? It celebrates a victory over French invaders, whose presence was unwelcome to the United States as well as to Mexico.
Polish Americans celebrate their national holidays without considering the presence of American flags to be an insult. So do Irish Americans.
Now if it had been September 13, there might be a bit of a conflict, since that celebrates six cadets who honorably defended their country against an American invasion force in 1847... but we don't have any conflict over the anniversary of the initial declaration of independence from Spain either...
If these students don't like the sight of the American flag, you can be accommodated. We can send you out of the country very fast.
BTW, Cinco de Mayo is not celebrated in Mexico. I understand it was invented by a brewer!
Let's just say, for argument's sake, that the kids who wore the American flags did so only to create trouble. (Personally, I really don't think that there's enough evidence to conclude this - like I said, this is just for argument's sake.) Still, the administrator who sent them home was being an idiot. Unless the school requires uniforms, how can they think that they have the right to tell the kids not to wear an American flag?
Again, even if these kids were just trying to stir a hornet's nest, the best thing would have been to simply ignore them and let them do it. We had a potential case of this at the school where I teach. Some students wanted to form a "White Club". Instead of making a big deal about it, the administrators let them have it. It quickly became forgotten.
In other words, I agree with you. This is political correctness to an insanely absurd degree.
Let's put this in perspective. I have lived in 3 foreign countries and visited over 50 in my life. I would never walk around waving the American flag on foreign soil.
As for the 5 kids, since when is the American flag "offensive" within the US?
I don't have a problem with either flag. Putting too much stock in a symbol is dangerous and small-minded, if you ask me, whether you're for it or against it.
I read an opinion article a while ago that was pretty interesting. The writer asked if the people who were offended with people who wave the Mexican flag in the U.S. are also offended with people who wave the Confederate Flag. After all - that was a country whose foundation resulted in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Americans.
Lance, Forget the Confederate flag. You will never see me wave a confederate flag.
I'm sorry, but this is a big thing. This school has just taught their students that the American flag is "offensive".
I know. I agree with you. Saying that it's offensive is stupid. Like I said, I was just trying my best to see it from the administration's point of view. I suppose it is possible that these kids wore them just to cause trouble. (Certainly there were some who wanted to cause trouble, but those were the kids who wore the "Border Patrol" shirts.) However, even if that's the case, the whole thing is STILL stupid.
In other words, even with a near-ridiculously extreme benefit of the doubt that I'm giving them, they still come off as fools.
Cinco de Mayo IS celebrated in Mexico, and it DOES celebrate a significant event in defense of Mexican independence. It was not invented by a brewer. Findalis's little urban legend may, however, have been invented by a man who had too many beers.
Wait...Findalis said something that wasn't actually true? Well, I never...
I only repeated an Urban Legend that many believe. I did find out the real meaning of Cinco de Mayo (Courtesy of The Jungle Hut):
Most people don't know that back in 1912, Hellmann's mayonnaise was manufactured in England . In fact, the Titanic was carrying 12,000 jars of the condiment scheduled for delivery in Vera Cruz, Mexico, which was to be the next port of call for the great ship after its stop in New York .
This would have been the largest single shipment of mayonnaise ever delivered to Mexico . But as we know, the great ship did not make it to New York. The ship hit an iceberg and sank, and the cargo was forever lost.
The people of Mexico, who were crazy about mayonnaise, and were eagerly awaiting its delivery, were disconsolate at the loss. Their anguish was so great, that they declared a National Day of Mourning, which they still observe to this day.
The National Day of Mourning occurs each year on May 5th and is known, of course, as --- Sinko de Mayo.
There was apparently a similar type of incident in the Houston Texas area yesterday. It is sure causing a good bit of controversy.
Siarlys the brewer certainly did not invent the "celebration" but capitalized on it. Most in the U.S. (even those of Hispanic descent) probably would have never heard of it was it not for an advertising campaign. It was after all a very minor episdode as far as military operations are concerned.
Details please:
Name of brewer:
Dates of advertising campaign:
Numbers of Mexican citizens who turned out to celebrate before and after the period of this campaign.
Scheduling of events in the U.S. before and after this advertising campaign.
Etc. Etc. Etc.
I seem to remember Ronald Reagan saying he couldn't remember a time he didn't celebrate Cinco de Mayo... oh well, I'm not sure he could remember much even when he was first elected to office.
I seem to remember Ronald Reagan saying he couldn't remember a time he didn't celebrate Cinco de Mayo.
Born in Tampico, Illinois in 1911, I don't think that President Reagan celebrated Cinco de Mayo as a child or young adult. So while that statement was politically helpful, it was very inaccurate.
As I wrote earlier, I took Urban Legend as fact.
After all, it is easy to see why. In the US we celebrate St. Patrick's Day as a day of getting drunk, while in Ireland it is celebrate differently.
The biggest brewer who started the ad campaigns is Budweiser, the first ad was in the early 1980's.
As I said, if we want to celebrate 5 May by drinking beer and Tequila with our Mexican friends (or my in-laws) that's great. Celebrate as an authentic holiday in the US? Sorry.
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