Students sent home from school for wearing American flag

[Maharg67]

Well, Maharg, I wouldn't wear an Australian flag on a day celebrating Aboriginal traditions if I lived in Australia either, I would be too scared.

 

.....or respecfull perhaps

Nope

 

Scared of what? Do you think Aboriginals are going to beat one up at an Aboriginal celebration? Danger comes from roving thugs, be they Aboriginal or white or ? in Austrlia and not from the Aboriginals at a celebration.

[Blue Morphos]

The U.S. was founded based on freedom.Immigrants came here for a better way of life.They learned the "English" language and were proud to be called Americans. Now They want their flag to be equal here. Enter the country legally,take part in the U.S. Heritage of mixed cultures all whom have added to this countries greatness but to demand that those students comply with and then were punished for wearing an American Flag shirt on a Mexican holiday is just wrong. The Principal should lose his job. America...Love it or leave it..we're not making you stay here but respect our flag and all it stands for first and foremost

[roguim]

@Maharg67

I disagree with you sorry, for me anyone have the rights to use a flag of his country, specially when they are in their country, so an white-Australians have the rights to use an t-shirt with the Australian flag in a a day celebrating Aboriginal traditions as well an Aboriginal have the right to use his tribal clothes/ flag in an white-Australian celebration.

[Maharg67]

The U.S. was founded based on freedom.Immigrants came here for a better way of life.They learned the "English" language and were proud to be called Americans. Now They want their flag to be equal here. Enter the country legally,take part in the U.S. Heritage of mixed cultures all whom have added to this countries greatness but to demand that those students comply with and then were punished for wearing an American Flag shirt on a Mexican holiday is just wrong. The Principal should lose his job. America...Love it or leave it..we're not making you stay here but respect our flag and all it stands for first and foremost

 

@Blue Morphos the Mexican Americans were there before white Americans moved into the area. Mexico ruled California before the USA did and before them were the Spanish. Go back through the forum posts in this topic, please, and you will see various accounts of Californian history.

 

Also please note that I stated that I did not believe the students should have been sent home.

 

@Maharg67

I disagree with you sorry, for me anyone have the rights to use a flag of his country, specially when they are in their country, so an white-Australians have the rights to use an t-shirt with the Australian flag in a a day celebrating Aboriginal traditions as well an Aboriginal have the right to use his tribal clothes/ flag in an white-Australian celebration.

 

Please feel free to disagree with me but please allow me the same right in return. White Australians have the right to use the Australian flag even on Aboriginal celebration days. I need to clarify my stance. I simple consider it would be disrespectful if one took an Australian flag to an actual celebration site. In Australia we have Australia Day, Anzac Day, and plenty of other chances to exxpress our patriotism. I would never consider it right that anybody who chose to take an Australian flag to such a place should be hassled in any way. If you have the right to do something, you also have the choice not to do it under certain conditions. It's called freedom of choice.

[Blue Morphos]

The U.S. was founded based on freedom.Immigrants came here for a better way of life.They learned the "English" language and were proud to be called Americans. Now They want their flag to be equal here. Enter the country legally,take part in the U.S. Heritage of mixed cultures all whom have added to this countries greatness but to demand that those students comply with and then were punished for wearing an American Flag shirt on a Mexican holiday is just wrong. The Principal should lose his job. America...Love it or leave it..we're not making you stay here but respect our flag and all it stands for first and foremost

 

@Blue Morphos the Mexican Americans were there before white Americans moved into the area. Mexico ruled California before the USA did and before them were the Spanish. Go back through the forum posts in this topic, please, and you will see various accounts of Californian history.

 

Also please note that I stated that I did not believe the students should have been sent home.

 

@Maharg67

I disagree with you sorry, for me anyone have the rights to use a flag of his country, specially when they are in their country, so an white-Australians have the rights to use an t-shirt with the Australian flag in a a day celebrating Aboriginal traditions as well an Aboriginal have the right to use his tribal clothes/ flag in an white-Australian celebration.

 

Please feel free to disagree with me but please allow me the same right in return. White Australians have the right to use the Australian flag even on Aboriginal celebration days. I need to clarify my stance. I simple consider it would be disrespectful if one took an Australian flag to an actual celebration site. In Australia we have Australia Day, Anzac Day, and plenty of other chances to exxpress our patriotism. I would never consider it right that anybody who chose to take an Australian flag to such a place should be hassled in any way. If you have the right to do something, you also have the choice not to do it under certain conditions. It's called freedom of choice.

I am well aware of the fact that California and Texas were part of Mexico before the white man arrived. Perhaps the Mexican populous should blame Santa Anna for signing it over to us when he lost the war. I believe in what this country stands for and we all have the right to wear what clothing we want no matter what the holiday is sir! I read the forum posts and yes even took history in grade school and High school so I am not ignorant of the history of that area but then perhaps I misunderstood what you said but I still stand by what I said. :)

[Balagor]

@Blue Morphos

@roguim

If everyone have the right to use their flag in their country, I guess it would be ok that a southerner showed the Confederate flag on july 4th :tongue:

[Blue Morphos]

@Blue Morphos

@roguim

If everyone have the right to use their flag in their country, I guess it would be ok that a southerner showed the Confederate flag on july 4th :tongue:

indeed they should.That flag means nothing more than a clash between values unlike the swaztika which was turned from a hindu sign of prosperity to a hateful misrepresentation of its original meaning. Confederate flag is part of the US history,Mexican flag is not except for Santa anna's loss . Thank you,your response was well thought out.

[roguim]

@Maharg67

Take a look in my signature the Voltaire quote it's one om my strongest creed , so you can disagree with me who am i to forbid you from that :thumbsup:

only a friendly clarification :wink:

And i don't thing that only for wearing a t-shirt with the Australian flag will be disrespectful, it depends of the behavior of the person that wears it , i mean here in Brazil we saw lots of people with foreign flags in their t-shirt and no problem, even in the September 7 (Brazil Independence) celebration, i even so people with Portugal flag in their t-shirt and no problem (only some friendly jokes).

But here is other case as the only epoch when the Brazilian put their flag and our "t-shirt' it's when the Brazilian Soccer team plays....

 

 

@Balagor

The same thing with the case of Australian flag in an aboriginal celebration that i'm talking with Maharg67, if the behavior of the one who use the t-shirt it's respectful, and the confederate stats it's part of US past so a part of their cultural legacy, not to tell that some historian agree that even if the south won the war after some years the US would be re-unified by peaceful ways.

[DarkeWolf]

@Maharg67

Take a look in my signature the Voltaire quote it's one om my strongest creed , so you can disagree with me who am i to forbid you from that :thumbsup:

only a friendly clarification :wink:

And i don't thing that only for wearing a t-shirt with the Australian flag will be disrespectful, it depends of the behavior of the person that wears it

This is exactly what I was trying to get at when I made my first post.

 

There was also a comment made about the rebel flag, here in the US. Thats a valid point. There are indeed some people here, that are offended by that flag, and what it represents...regardless of their reasons for it, it's still offensive to them. Even moreso if it's being sported by peoples of certain "attitudes".

 

Ok, say that I walk into an Irish pub, on St. Patty's day. I'm sporting a shirt with big, fat, bold letters that reads "Proud to be Pagan". Most likely some old-school, Irish traditional who is there actually celebrating Patrick's victory over the pagans, is going to be offended.

 

Honestly, this is how I see it. I KNOW how kids were when I was a teenager. Honestly, we DID this kind of stuff back then. My town had a HUGE football rivalry with the neighboring town. A rivalry that went as far back as the Civil War (not that it was really stemmed by football, more from the war, but that's where it ended up).

When we were feeling rowdy, and would wanna go look for trouble, we'd throw on the school colors, or the jocks would throw on their jerseys, and we'd go over there and make it obvious that we were there, and where we were from.

 

And many of them are at least 5 times worse now, than I was back then. I see this as the boys looking to start up trouble. And the fact that they gained media acclaim out of it, and were painted as victims just really pisses me off.

 

I'm not saying the principle was in the right tho. I can't COUNT the number of times I had to spend a day in in-school suspension, all by myself in a classroom with just Me and a Teacher, over something that I did wrong.

[Maharg67]

@Blue Morphos

@roguim

If everyone have the right to use their flag in their country, I guess it would be ok that a southerner showed the Confederate flag on july 4th :tongue:

indeed they should.That flag means nothing more than a clash between values unlike the swaztika which was turned from a hindu sign of prosperity to a hateful misrepresentation of its original meaning. Confederate flag is part of the US history,Mexican flag is not except for Santa anna's loss . Thank you,your response was well thought out.

 

Fundimentally I think this debate will never resolve itself. For example one could say that the Confederacy was not officially part of the USA and so its flag might be said to be outside of US History. That is an argument that one could forward considering one's outlook on history. I studied history at university but also the ways that it is biased so that very different accounts of the same events are the norm. Perhaps I should have remembered more clearly what I learned before I posted on this topic. Bias, subjectivity, is normal in historical based debates and true objectivity is rare. This is true for political debates and other kinds that I can not mention on this forum. I have not been objective. I will no longer be posting on any such debates in future.

 

PS: this topic should have been in the Debates area.

Edited May 12, 2010 by Maharg67