The immigration debate doesn't work so well in the schools evidently. Word has trickled back from the front lines that debate probably doesn't describe what is going on there.
Two schools in Colorado and one in San Diego have now instituted bans on flags or clothing in the color of flags.
This is because the Mexican-American kids and the illegal Mexican kids carried Mexican flags, and the American kids responded by carrying American flags.
Then the American kids started wearing clothes in red, white and blue, and with flags on them. That caused the Mexican kids to feel put down, so arguments would start.
And that started the American kids thinking: Wait a minute, you're in America. This is our flag.
So debate went out the window. And the principals in these schools decided to head off the possibility of fights, they better just ban flags.
This against the backdrop of a high school principal in Houston punished for flying the Mexican flag on the school flagpole and another high school teacher suspended for printing up flyers urging kids to go march in an anti-immigration crackdown demonstration.
So Hispanic teachers are urging kids to get out there and demonstrate, and American administrators are telling kids "No American flags."
Something is upside down here.
For starters, I wouldn't think the American flag should ever be banned anywhere in this country, especially not banned in a school.
If the Mexican kids are going to be Americans, they might as well start with the flag. You don't have to learn English to get the flag thing. You don't have to get papers to do the flag thing. You don't need the U.S. Senate to approve your status to do the flag thing.
The flag thing is the very first thing people who want to be Americans usually pick up. Wear one, fly one, be respectful of everyone you see.
That's the first lesson of immigration to America. The American flag: Make it yours or go back home.
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