Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Patriotism! A thing of the past?

I only watch the news occasionally these days, as I have a tendency to get angered by the absurdity of it. So I turn it on the other day to hear this lovely little piece of Americana. Five kids are sent home for wearing shirts that have an American Flag on them?!?! Surely this can't be? Surely, they are raving lunatics that are promoting hate and worshiping the devil! Nope, turns out some administrator (why are all administrators idiots?) decided the American Flag has no place in public on May the 5th. Mexican Independence should trump all rights of a free Republic!?!

What's next? No freedom of speech on Canada's Boxing Day? No one should own firearms on Hugo Chavez's Birthday? And absolutly no free press on the holy day of Ramadan! Is there no end to the madness? I help maintain a Scout Troop therefore I am racist against homosexauls?!? If you are a devote Catholic you support child abuse? On and on!

What happen to the tie that binds us? Is it not the American Flag that protects all of these rights? Are all of these rights not what helps us to celebrate our ethinic origins? By the way this is not a tirade against Spanish people. I have some Spanish friends who I would give my life for and they for me. This is about an ideal that has been lost for some reason. That you can be anything you want to be in this America. As long as you follow the law and don't impede on other's pursuit of happiness.

I see no reason to banish the Flag. Or for that matter the other things that have held us to a higher standard for centuries. (prayer in school, statues of soldiers, etc.) How far removed are we from the cost of these freedoms we enjoy? The greastest generation (WWII) never forgot the price paid! A war on the other side of the globe to secure our freedom is apparently not in our face enough!

We are all participants in this crazy dream of freedom and self rule. The problem is to many see themselves as above the price of these freedoms. If the participants are greater than the dream, then the dream is dead!