Irvine, California - The recent incident at the University of California at Irvine in which the undergraduate legislative council passed a measure banning the American Flag on campus is a cause for concern, according to Dan Weber, president of the Association of Mature American Citizens.
The school's executive cabinet of UC's Associated Students was quick to veto what it called the "misguided legislation." But now an online letter is circulating with upwards of 1,200 signatures, including those of more than five dozen UC professors, and it supports the original ban the flag initiative, according to the Leadership Institute Web site Campus Reform. The letter reads, in part, "that nationalism, including U.S. nationalism, often contributes to racism and xenophobia."
Weber said that he was "hurt" by these developments because "it shed light on the lack of knowledge, bordering on outright ignorance, that pervades our schools today. I am saddened by the loss of love and respect for our country among some of America's youth and their educators."
He said that "radical and misguided notions of the near-term and long-term history of America, a glaring dismissal of the heritage and traditions of our country and the erosion of confidence in the exceptionalism that made us a model for the world have crept into our lives. And, unless we can push back the tide of pessimism and defeat that plague the next generation, life as we know it and knew it will continue to evolve in the wrong direction."
Weber said he is concerned about "the new wave of educators who teach our children and young adults in a manner that is politically correct, but divisively and distortedly incorrect."
He said that there is much anecdotal evidence in our schools today that hint at the frighteningly subtle indoctrination of young students. He cited the school that suspended a 13-year-old middle schooler because he had a gun shaped birth mark on his leg. At another school a teacher told an 18-year-old girl to leave the class because she said "God bless you" to a fellow student who had sneezed, he noted.
"But the ban the flag movement at the University of California takes the cake," Weber lamented. "It's discouraging and disheartening to see such disrespect for the banner that symbolizes all that is good with this country."
The UC student behind the ban is Michael Guevara, and he wrote that: "The American flag has been flown in instances of colonialism and imperialism. Flags not only serve as symbols of patriotism or weapons for nationalism, but also construct cultural mythologies and narratives that in turn charge nationalistic sentiments."
Weber wondered how young Mr. Guevara came to think that way. The AMAC chief added: "The millions of immigrants who populated our nation came here because of the opportunities available to them that were not available in any other country on earth. They came here to work and they did, creating a land where a person with the ambition and the will to succeed does, in fact, succeed. This is a land where one Conservative President told off the liberal rabble: 'Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.' That president was John F. Kennedy, a loyal Democrat of a different stripe."
