Flag-Waving

School is a complicated place these days, especially in complicated California.  In Morgan Hill, in that state (where?), there has been a bit of a kerfuffle over what to wear to school on Cinco de Mayo.  It seems kids of Mexican heritage and/or nationality sport Mexican flags in observance of the day; some Anglo kids evidently decided to wear American flags.  There has been violence on this day in the past, so the school banned the wearing of the U.S. flag on the grounds students who wore it were endangering themselves.  A U.S. court agreed and let the ban stand.  

Multiculturalism?  Sure.  All nationalities have tended to celebrate their own holidays in the U.S.  But there are differences.  I don't recall German-Americans or Chinese-Americans making much of a deal of observing their special days in school; and while it's true Italian flags get waved on Columbus Day, and Irish ones on St. Patrick's, the focus is more on the national colors than on the flag qua flag.  In those St. Pat's parades, you'll see as many American flags as you do Irish - often both being carried by the same people.

That apparently isn't the case in Morgan Hill.  It seems fairly evident that those wearing U.S. flags were reacting to something - specifically, to the wearing of Mexican flags.   Are the Mexican aficionados sporting both Mexican and U.S. flags?  I would guess not. Would a student wearing both flags be attacked?  Would it make a difference if that student were a Latino or an Anglo? 

I can understand the court's thinking on this.  But not its decision. If the American flag was a danger to its wearers, it could only have been because the Mexican flag is an equally dangerous - and I suspect purposeful - provocation.  If danger is the concern, the school should ban the use of both flags.  The court ought to have been able to incorporate this simple reality into its decision. 

Comments

[Gabbygeezer]

A strange court decision, indeed. It seems obvious the school should have banned wearing both flags, but perhaps I'm missing something here. There's a big difference between being an American proud of one's heritage and an outsider refusing to join American society. Those of Mexican heritage do themselves no favors with provocative activities.