Yes, That Star Spangled Banner Yet Waves
Roy Jeffords
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Bernie Sanders should be sitting behind the Resolute desk right now. Despite the nightmares that image creates, a Sanders Presidential ticket would have been hard to beat. The Democratic National Committee insured a Trump victory when they – according to their own admission – swung the primary toward Clinton, alienating the younger voters who fueled his campaign. Given the chance, those kids would have delivered a Sanders Presidency.
The fact that Sanders stands against almost every quality that pushed our ancestors to build and maintain the greatest bastion of freedom the world has ever seen tells us a lot about America’s youth, presumably. With all the stories of their entitlement mentality, intolerance of anything they don’t agree with, and mass temper tantrums when they don’t get their way, it’s easy to think our nation is doomed. Last week, however, a group of midwestern high school students spread a ray of hope over the dark landscape of leftist America.
Last year at Rocori High School in Cold Spring, Minnesota, a small group of students came to school flying the flag of the Army of Northern Virginia, known simply as the Confederate battle flag to most people. It’s hard to imagine why a group of kids from a state on the Canadian border that joined the Union just before the Southern states seceded were sporting a Confederate flag, but other students and faculty found it offensive. Instead of banning that particular flag, or all flags except the American flag, school administrators decided to forbid students from flying anything from their vehicles. The new rule would have taken effect next week. Ironically, Monday will be September 11.
Students, however, were having none of what the adults were peddling. This past Wednesday, at least twenty-five cars pulled into the parking lot with Old Glory waving behind them. The kids were all respectful, according to their principal, but they were determined to fly the American flag.
The two opposing groups sat down later that day, and a compromise was reached following a reasonable conversation. Both sides were able to discuss the issue from their perspective and, more importantly, both sides listened and acknowledged the other’s concerns. Moving forward, flags will be allowed as long as they’re not deemed offensive. Problems involving anything other than the Stars and Stripes will be handled individually as they occur.
A similar situation occurred two years ago at York Comprehensive High School in South Carolina when Peyton Robinson, a senior, was told he couldn’t display the American flag from his truck bed. In an Instagram post, he claimed that a school administrator told him other students had complained about the flag being offensive. The school, however, issued a statement saying the flag might block the visibility of other drivers.
Whatever the reason, the community rallied around the students when Robinson used social media to call for help. More than seventy flags flew from cars and truck beds at York Comprehensive the next morning. That afternoon, an exception was made for Old Glory “…as long as the size of the flag(s) does not create a driving hazard,” school officials said.
These kids from different parts of the country give us all something to smile about. Not only do they have values we can be proud of, they’re willing to stand and fight for the things they believe in. Not only that, they showed the entire nation how to protest effectively without blocking traffic, disrespecting veterans, killing anyone, or destroying a city. As a people, we just might have a future.
Now, if we can just keep them safe from the college professors…
Roy Jeffords is an author, ghost writer, and curmudgeon-at-large. A graduate of The Citadel, the Military College of South Carolina, he lives in Texas with his wife and their two boxers. Find him on Facebook at Roy Jeffords, Twitter @royjeffords, and Instagram royjeffords. Contact him at [email protected].
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