As you've no doubt heard, five high school students in California were asked to turn their shirts inside out or go home because they bore the American flag on Cinco de Mayo. Obviously, the decision made by the Administration was wrong, and in violation of the students' constitutional rights to free speech. I don't think I've heard any disagreement on that point. The decision was reversed and the Principal of the school issued a public apology. That should be the end of he story. Sadly, it isn't.
Despite the apology, the mother of one of the boys contacted Fox News (of course) and a media maelstrom was born. The teachers at the school started getting hate emails, the local Tea Party group has called for a rally in the town, and there is even a facebook poll asking if the Principal should be fired. (95% have answered yes). Fired. For one bad decision. I hope all the people who are calling for the firing are judged as harshly at their jobs. Imagine knowing that a single error in judgment could send you to the unemployment line?
The reaction is so wholly disproportionate to the offense, it's disturbing. Why are people so easily angered? Why do they use the slightest infraction to justify that anger?
Yes, the Administration of the school made a bad decision, but let's not operate under the delusion that those five boys were somehow innocent victims. These are kids on the verge of adulthood. They are aware of the world around them, they know what's going on and they were perfectly aware of the political climate and heightened anxiety in this country over the issue of immigration. They made the decision to wear those shirts on that particular day not out of some deep sense of patriotism, but to be provocative. (Set aside for now the fact that patriotism has nothing at all to do with what you wear, put on your bumper, or post as your facebook status.) They did it to cause a stir and garner attention. They got exactly what they wanted and now people are unjustifiably angry. If they thought their actions would somehow help the public discourse in this country, they miscalculated.
What is so rally worthy? Were all the teachers asked to take down the American flag in their classrooms? Was the Pledge of Allegiance suddenly banned? No. In a misguided attempt at being sensitive, and proactively avoiding conflict, a bad decision was made. That's it. One bad decision, with good intentions. A decision which was consequently reversed and for which an apology was issued. That isn't good enough for the "I'm more patriotic than you" crowd, and now their self-righteous anger has led to hate mail being sent to good, honest, hard working teachers, who in all likelihood have a better grasp of what it means to be patriotic than the people propagating anger and hate in the name of patriotism.
I find hope in the students. In the wake of this nonsense, they gathered together to hold an impromptu peace rally on their campus. They had a moment of silence for the teachers receiving hate mail, and they raised the American and the Mexican flag together in a show of solidarity and mutual respect. The next day, many of the students wore plain white shirts to school to promote peace and calm tensions.
I wonder if the rest of the country will take a moment to learn a lesson from these kids and all just calm down.
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