U.S. Flag Banned: A Lesson In Free Speech [Opinion]
The University of California-Irvine student government passed a resolution where the U.S. flag is banned from the common lobby area of student government offices, as reported by the L.A. Times.
“The American flag has been flown in instances of colonialism and imperialism…construct paradigms of conformity and sets homogenized standards.”
Matthew Guevara, the author of this resolution, is trying to equate the flag as instilling fear through the imposition of a uniform set of standards. The real question one has to ask is: Who is Guevara referring to in his resolution? The answer is non-Americans who came to this country since he is referring to the U.S. flag in terms of colonialism and imperialism.
This is America. The non-Americans who are attending UC-Irvine know that they are in a foreign country and should realize that the U.S. flag is going to be visible and should not be banned because it offends their personal sensibilities.
Liberals will be the first to say that all flags are banned for this reason, according to the resolution. Do not fall for this nonsense. Guevara does not call out the Mexican flag, the Canadian flag, or any other flag by name – just the U.S. flag. This is the standard anti-American sentiment that is so prevalent among liberals today.
The next obvious question is why should the U.S. flag be banned? Guevara provides the following characterization of the U.S. flag.
“…freedom of speech, in a space that aims to be as inclusive as possible, can be interpreted as hate speech.”
The American flag has to be banned because it is offensive hate speech in an area where freedom of speech and inclusion needs to be encouraged. UC-Irvine has a well-earned reputation for being a liberal university. The thing is that liberals need to go back and understand the true meaning of freedom of speech.
“America is advanced citizenship.” – Andrew Shepard in the The American President
Free speech is not a simple concept. You cannot just simply ban the U.S. flag because you deem it offensive, hate speech, and such and then demonize a differing opinion. Case in point – Jon McNaughton, a conservative artist, painted the following image accurately depicting Obama’s foreign policy.
Liberals will be the first to characterize this painting as nothing more than unbridled racism against Obama. (How many times has that response been used?) A casual scanning of the comments on McNaughton’s Facebook post include calling it – pornography, treasonous, as well as spreading hate and malice. Even Obama, as thin-skinned as he is, has made it no secret that he would like to control the flow of information. Wonder why?
Banning the U.S. flag in America is tolerance and inclusion while accurately depicting Obama’s foreign policy is treasonous, hate-filled, pornographic, racism.
Why is that?
[Photo by John Moore/Getty Images]
