Michigan public school official calls first American flag symbol of “exclusion and hate”
The coming dark age: The first American flag, the flag that Betsy Ross designed for George Washington in the Revolutionary War, now “symbolizes exclusion and hate,” according to a Michigan public school superintendent.
A Michigan public school superintendent wrote in a published “letter to the community” that students at a high school football game injected “hate” and “hostility” because they waved a historical Betsy Ross flag that has 13 stars to represent the original 13 colonies.
The students waved the flag at a Sept. 9 football game at Houseman Field between Forest Hills Central and Ottawa Hills. The students also brought a Donald Trump for President banner to the event.
The superintendent received a complaint from a parent and then published the letter which is dated Sept. 12. “And to wave a historical version of our flag, that to some symbolizes exclusion and hate, injects hostility and confusion to an event where no one intended to do so,” Forest Hills Public Schools Superintendent Daniel Behm wrote. Behm continued with an apology: “To our gracious hosts — the students, families, staff, and community of Grand Rapids Ottawa Hills High School and Grand Rapids Public Schools — and to the student-athletes, coaches, officials, and supporters of both teams, we are truly sorry. These actions are not characteristic of our schools, our staff, our students, or our community, and they represent a lack of knowledge.”
This is where modern academia and the racist left that dominates it is taking us. Any reference to American past history, any reference at all, is going to be considered a racist act, and must be censored, banned, silenced, and rewritten. It doesn’t matter that this flag had nothing to do with hate or exclusion, but was simply the flag of the United States in its war of independence from British rule (a war, by the way, that led to the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and the eventual end of slavery). It is an integral part of American history, and for young people to learn anything about that history must be prevented, at all costs.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
The coming dark age: The first American flag, the flag that Betsy Ross designed for George Washington in the Revolutionary War, now “symbolizes exclusion and hate,” according to a Michigan public school superintendent.
A Michigan public school superintendent wrote in a published “letter to the community” that students at a high school football game injected “hate” and “hostility” because they waved a historical Betsy Ross flag that has 13 stars to represent the original 13 colonies.
The students waved the flag at a Sept. 9 football game at Houseman Field between Forest Hills Central and Ottawa Hills. The students also brought a Donald Trump for President banner to the event.
The superintendent received a complaint from a parent and then published the letter which is dated Sept. 12. “And to wave a historical version of our flag, that to some symbolizes exclusion and hate, injects hostility and confusion to an event where no one intended to do so,” Forest Hills Public Schools Superintendent Daniel Behm wrote. Behm continued with an apology: “To our gracious hosts — the students, families, staff, and community of Grand Rapids Ottawa Hills High School and Grand Rapids Public Schools — and to the student-athletes, coaches, officials, and supporters of both teams, we are truly sorry. These actions are not characteristic of our schools, our staff, our students, or our community, and they represent a lack of knowledge.”
This is where modern academia and the racist left that dominates it is taking us. Any reference to American past history, any reference at all, is going to be considered a racist act, and must be censored, banned, silenced, and rewritten. It doesn’t matter that this flag had nothing to do with hate or exclusion, but was simply the flag of the United States in its war of independence from British rule (a war, by the way, that led to the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and the eventual end of slavery). It is an integral part of American history, and for young people to learn anything about that history must be prevented, at all costs.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
Probably another part of the dynamic here is the lack of leadership shown in what was probably an automatic response to a single complaint. Too many people in positions of authority have allowed themselves to be conditioned to bending over backwards when someone complains.
The way I most often see this manifested is the teacher who lowers standards when a student and/or parent complains about a bad grade.
I hope the other citizens here give the superintendent an earful, and he and others start to think twice about bending over backwards to a single complainer.
This is why, in everyday life, we should not just let ridiculous comments go by unchallenged; doing so makes the cool-aid more tempting to some.
Of course the actual hatred shown by people to our flag isn’t something that can be stopped by people saying it offends them. Offense leading to the restriction of activities always flows one way. Its BS.
It looks like the original complaint had more to do with the “Donald Trump for President banner than the colonial flag.
He actually wrote: “It’s a privilege to not have to think about certain things and to not have to know about certain things” Yeah, right… Apparently the nuance escapes me.
The superintendent’s reaction is another example of a union thug masquerading as an educator using the power of his position to silence the views of people he disagrees with. And if the sane residents manage to fire him? He probably walks aways with a 1/2 million in contract penalties. (It happened in my town) (Then the morons hired another overpaid jackass)
If he really was an educator he would have taken the opportunity to teach a history lesson to an ignorant parent (ignorance is curable with knowledge) about the founding of our country.
Many on the left have gone mad. They are no longer capable of living, much less thriving, in the real (and imperfect) world which takes common sense, emotional maturity, personal responsibility and knowledge of American and world history.
Goodness gracious, Frank. Maybe they need crayons and coloring books for their own safe space, if they are not mature enough to handle reality, differing opinions, and free speech.
http://behindtheblack.com/behind-the-black/points-of-information/college-students-using-coloring-books-to-ease-stress/
The lights are growing dimmer. Would you ever see ISIS burn their flag in protest of their leadership? How about the Palestinians, Greece, Germany, Russia, China, Japan, Mexico, etc.
I am taking classes at my local community college. There is an online resource included with the text book which offers about 50 practice questions to test your knowledge of the material.
My exams are 50 questions long. Twenty-five of the questions are taken directly from the practice question bank. You can start the exam with an automatic 25/50 correct just by completing the practice questions.
The course is designed for people not to fail. There is no critical thinking required to get a passing grade.
Education has sadly been left behind in the United States. We are falling behind to the Chinese every day. The educated Chinese populace is the future. If China successfully moves away from Communism/Socialism, then they will become the future superpower.
Chris Noname wrote;
“If China successfully moves away from Communism/Socialism, then they will become the future superpower.”
If they adopt a new system, would that be a system based on capitalism? That would make them a very powerful force indeed! Since capitalism at its root is based on every individual making daily choices acting in their own self-interest moderated by all the other people acting in their own self-interest, it creates a society based on cooperation rather than conquest. Rather than be fearful of such a change the west should embrace and encourage it. But I fear the Maoists currently in charge will not lightly relinquish the power they hold. But it is nice to imagine what a boon for humanity that would be.
PeterF,
What you describe is a free market system (individuals acting in their own self interest, etc.), which is what China is moving toward. China also has a stock market, which is a sign that they are also embracing capitalism, which allows for all citizens to engage in funding business development.
So, yes. They are adopting a system based upon free market capitalism. How free and how capitalist it will end up being is not yet known, as they still do a lot of their own top down economic dictates. New ghost cities come to mind.