But this is America, and these are the broad stripes and bright stars that o’er the ramparts we watched so gallantly streaming.
Now they are offensive to “New Americans”.
And this incident didn’t take place in Cambridge, Ann Arbor, or Berkeley — this was in Texas!
Read it and weep:
Supervisor Asks Woman to Take Down American Flag- - - - - - - - -
Is it okay to show your patriotism at the office?
For one Arlington woman, the answer was “no” after she hung an American flag in her office just before the Memorial Day weekend.
Debbie McLucas is one of four hospital supervisors at Kindred Hospital in Mansfield. Last week, she hung a three-by-five foot American flag in the office she shares with the other supervisors.
When McLucas came to work Friday, her boss told her another supervisor had found her flag offensive. “I was just totally speechless. I was like, ‘You’re kidding me,’“ McLucas said.
McLucas’ husband and sons are former military men. Her daughter is currently serving in Iraq as a combat medic.
Stifling a cry, McLucas said, “I just wonder if all those young men and women over there are really doing this for nothing.”
McLucas said the supervisor who complained has been in the United States for 14 years and is formerly from Africa. McLucas said that supervisor took down the flag herself.
“The flag and the pole had been placed on the floor,” McLucas said. But McLucas also said hospital higher-ups had told her some patients’ families and visitors had also complained.
“I was told it wouldn’t matter if it was only one person,” she said. “It would have to come down.”
McLucas said hospital bosses told her as far as patriotism was concerned, the flag flying outside the hospital building would have to suffice.
“I find it very frightening because if I can’t display my flag,” McLucas asked, “what other freedoms will I lose before all is said and done?”
Kindred Healthcare’s corporate headquarters are located in Kentucky. We called them for comment when we were first working on this story Tuesday, but they did not return our calls.
But a lot of people complained about what happened. The hospital was not immune to pressure, and it backed down:
Wednesday morning, however, our story received nationwide attention. We have received hundreds of emails and comments from people who had something to say about it. Several dozen people protested outside the Mansfield hospital Wednesday. And a receptionist at Kindred’s headquarters told us they received many phone calls.
Then, late Wednesday morning, Kindred posted on its website a statement about the incident. It reads, in part: “The disagreement was over the size of the flag and not what it symbolized. We have invited the employee to put the flag back up.”
We talked to McLucas Wednesday afternoon. She says the hospital’s local CEO called and apologized. And McLucas says the woman did tell her she could put the flag back up, which she has done.
But she says when she was first told the flag had to go, nobody mentioned anything about its size.
“At no point was I afforded the opportunity — [no one said,] ‘Hey Deb, could you get a one and a half by three and a half and hang it instead of hanging this three by five?’“ McLucas said.
Even so, McLucas says she’s happy people have spoken out about the issue. “It’s just restored my faith in the American people,” she said.
This is an example of the Europeanization of America, which is happening much more rapidly than I expected. Perhaps the election of an ethnic Messiah of ambiguous nationality has hastened the process.
Nations, after all, are artificial constructs. They are tools used by the Patriarchy to oppress and demoralize workers, minorities, women, the handicapped, gays, lesbians, bisexuals, and the transgendered. Removing the symbols of a nationalistic false consciousness is one the first tasks of the Revolution.
So my advice to my fellow Americans — especially those who live in California, Vermont, or Massachusetts — is to fly the flag early and often.
And buy ammo, while you still can.
Hat tip: Paul Green.
37 comments:
The scenes from the 1930's and 1940's under the National Socialist during there many mass rallys were breath-taking to those taking part in those events. Obama and company have effectively taken a page from Hitler's playbook, and the crowds and thunderous masses love the grandeur of the Obama rallys. Things have NOT changed.
This is an example of the Europeanization of America,
No. It isn't. Europeans love their countries - OK, many Europeans love their countries. Some are eager to show it; for example, Danes show their flag all the time in all sorts of situations.
Some people are just jerks. The "other supervisor" and "some patients’ families and visitors" were (are) just jerks (or a******s to put it bluntly). That and a bit of CYA from the hospital middle management was pretty much the whole thing. OK, and maybe a 3x5 foot flag is pretty big (I would've been pleased to share an office with it tho' - especially if I knew the woman's husband and children are serving or served).
spunky --
I don't agree. An outrage like this could not have occurred in my childhood, ca. 50 years ago, or even 30 years ago -- it would never have happened.
Things have changed, and they changed in Europe first. That's why I call it "Europeanization".
But you're right: Denmark is an exception. Danes don't take kindly to people who diss Dannebrog. And they fly it everywhere.
Baron,
I was at a function this morning with lots of high-fliers and I noticed that an Irish flag was hung so low that it actually touched the ground.
This may have been technically illegal though I'd have to check the actual flag protocols which I am not intimately familiar with.
It is clear however that placing an American flag on the floor is a scandal. Good on Ms. McLucas for standing up to this outrage.
However I don't agree that America is being "Europeanised".
If the issue is "gays, lesbians, bisexuals, and the transgendered" then please remember that the modern gay rights movement began in Greenwich Village, New York City with the Stonewall Riots.
I'd say that rural America is being Washingtonised or Californianised, seeing as that's where a lot of the silly ideas being imposed on Red States originate - even if they were first tested and observed in the social laboratory of Europe.
i-phobe --
I agree with you: New York, D.C., and California are the primary purveyors of Europeanization.
But you have to remember that the American liberal elites have Euro-envy. They consciously and intentionally want the USA to imitate European social democracy.
So Europe is the model.
The funny thing is, a lot of the crap that we're re-importing from Europe was at least partially American in the first place, especially when you look at the Frankfurt school stuff.
When I read this article these lyrics came to mind.
Land of Song!" said the warrior bard,
"Tho' all the world betrays thee,
One sword, at least, thy rights shall guard,
One faithful harp shall praise thee!"
Can this really be settled without armed conflict? I hope it can but I am starting to think maybe it cannot.
Having said that let’s not lose sight of the fact that in this country the highest loyalty belongs to the Constitution. I mean the written one not the living, make it up as you go along one.
Baron,
What you are describing is the political equivalent of what musicians refer to as call and response.
Still, I think the use of term "Europeanisation" is mistaken because it allows the vast majority of American conservatives to pretend that every screwball idea their liberal brethren concoct is a foreign import.
It's an excuse to avoid confronting the nihilism inherent in American liberalism and the serious question of what must be done to oppose it.
"Blame Europe First" to coin a term.
I agree with Baron on this one. My parents, grandfather and family members would have been horrified and disgusted by such behavior. If this jerk found the American flag so offensive maybe he should quit looking at it. It is still all around him(for now). Maybe he should go back to where he came from.
Europe is the model for alot of
what is happening here in many arenas. We can also thank the liberal hosing that this country has been enduring for many, many years through our education system. Hijacked by liberals and radicals, now our children are brainwashed how bad the USA has been in past, to the entire world, it seems. Diversity and multiculturalism is what I call a toxic stew. It poisons everything through contamination of policies of trying to make everyone, everything so right, many of these isssues become "wromgs" and offensive to many of us, right before our eyes.
Not to mention the POTUS is an expert at this garbage. Him and his ilk will be all they can to remake America into Amerika, "comrades."
For any of you even mildly surprised at this story I urge you to get the film 'Indoctrinate U' or perhaps the final version was called 'Brainwashing 101' about the state of leftism in US colleges. Now I know the topic is a surprise to no one, but clearly the fact that many where told to take their US flags down from dorm walls on campus on NINE TWELVE because it was offensive to immigrants clearly is a surprise to many of you. The movie is full of well documented revelations of same. For example, an American Sikh who was threatened with violence and racial epithets and nothing was done about it because he is a well known conservative on campus and defender of the US. Or a Kuwaiti who was told by the college that he may have his student visa revoked and sent back to Kuwait because he DEFENDED the USA for liberating his nation from one of history's more barbaric invasions. Yes he did a paper for college praising the US and it's foreign policy and was threatened with expulsion for this despite it being his personal experience. So there we have it. Ones race, religion or ethnicity is secondary to being a post modernist anti American leftist. If you are gay brown or foreign and same so much the better. But if you are gay brown or foreign and loyal to the US and western values, you are leftovers for what my food eats.
Get Indoctrinate U. its well worth the effort. It was made I believe by on the fence films.
Eeyore
Europeanization is the wrong term, this is the Left's war on the West and its peoples, liberalism, democracy and freedom.
The Left is the most dangerous enemy of the West, and it may successfully bring the Dark Ages back into exitance...by its destruction.
The Left makes my blood boil.
I would also note that "Europeanization" is too broad a brush. There are some horribly countries that exhibit the above described phenomenon. East europe is rather different. In Latvia for example, by law, on every national holiday every single house and office in the country must fly the Latvian national flag outside in proper order. Police action and fines will follow otherwise.
"Europe is a model" is misleading. Just cause they havn't tried something in Belgium first doesn't mean the US leftists woun't try it in the states anyway. With 20+ countries in Europe its a reasonably sure bet that most policies will be done in at least one country there before it hits the US.
How many countries in Europe have had incidents of own authorities banning the national flag?? Britain is a standout. Holland. Occurences in Sweden. Norway? But, its also happened in Australia to some degree.
Hardly a pan euro phenomenon.
Ah, but it is a pan european thing, in the sense that only Western Countries with white European indigenous or majority populations are where this crapola is to be found. Rather it is pan Western Left, anti Westernism.....the villification of all white Europeans, their countries, societies, and system of governance, Christian males, aka the Enemy.
Anyone else find it curious that the name, ethnicity, or religion of the complainant isn't revealed in the article? When that happens I start assuming the person in question is black and/or Muslim.
McLucas said the supervisor who complained has been in the United States for 14 years and is formerly from Africa. --- from the article
If you find the US flag offensive, please leave immediately. Africa beckons you home.
"formerly from Africa"
The thing is, where in Africa? It's a biggish continent, the north of which is almost exclusively Muslim, having fallen to the first wave of jihad in the 7th and 8th centuries.
Clearly an MSM coverup, intended to forestall "Islamophobia."
And again: if it were the other way round, the complainant would be labelled a rascist.
A year or two ago, the dutch national youth footballteam (which i believe you call soccer) became european champions. The dark skinned players began waving the Surinam flag, which caused minor outrage among dutch football fans.
Ofcourse, to no ones surprise, these complainants were branded rascists on which note the discussion was closed!
Great post, Baron. And nothing more American than that "buy ammo while you still can" touch. Good.
It would be interested to know who will suffer the consequences at the job though.
"This is an example of the Europeanization of America, which is happening much more rapidly than I expected."
- Conservative swede will not take this lightly Baron. I would expect himto chime in soon... :-)
One question though - do you consider it a coincidence, that this kind of non-sense only takes place in the european countries that were americanised most thouroughly, after ww2? Or is their a pattern?
Second question: Given the fact that Stars and Stripes cause trouble in spite of signalling defeat of colonial rule, slavery and liberation of the black people. Would it be fair to say that America in a sense is "ahead" of europe in its europeanisation?
After all the european flags are not all-inclusive. They do have exclusive ethnic, religious and cultural meanings. And these meanings are obvious to anyone... Try flying the lone star flag through some black ghettos in new york, and you´ll see the difference.
Fellow Peacekeeper --
Yes, of course I should have said "Western Europe". For the sake of conciseness, I say "Europe", but anything in the former Soviet Zone may be considered excluded.
Regardless of what you call it, the Baron is correct to point out that Europe is where these ideas about destroying national identity are being put into practice. It's good to hear not everyone in Europe is falling for it though. Hopefully enough Europeans will retain their pride in being Danish, French, British, etc. in spite of the attempts to make them "European".
kitman --
Ha, good points.
Here's the way I see it: a lot of the bad ideas (but not all) came from America. But they were more fully realized in Europe, with Sweden being the purest application of modern socialist theory.
So Western Europe became an expression of the worst and most fashionable ideas to emerge from American academia.
Now our elites look at Western Europe and drool. They want to reimport the Eueopean model to America. They long to replicate the perfect European socialist state here in the USA.
But all these benighted and moronic yahoos with flags, guns, and God keep getting in their way.
That, in a nutshell, is our situation.
kitman said,
"do you consider it a coincidence, that this kind of non-sense only takes place in the european countries that were americanised most thouroughly, after ww2? Or is their a pattern?"
I think the Eastern Europeans got a mouthful of the full realization of Leftism, and have no desire to play that game anymore. They understand more fully the deprivation, the lies, the spin, the indoctrination...that the Left brings to the table. There nationalism was supressed under Russian nationalist sovietism, so they are quite nationalist.
You would think that the US would be a symbol of Leftwingism, throwing off the colonial rule, Enlightenment democracy...etc. Except the US is rather a Classically Liberal entity, and the far Left (Marxist inspired aka anyone to the Left of US Republicans or perhaps Christian Democrats) just doesnt like it one bit.
Did this pathetic nonsense about being "offended" by patriotic displays come from Europe? Yes, from one specific place -- Bedlam, the palace of multiculti dunces.
The real offense is that the "African" wasn't told to love it or leave it as soon as s/he kvetched.
The Baron is right about one thing for sure: stockpile your ammo while you can. Be prepared for the day the Pincer hits the streets. (Joe the Plumber got a preview.)
The Baron says:
I don't agree. An outrage like this could not have occurred in my childhood, ca. 50 years ago, or even 30 years ago -- it would never have happened.
Actually Baron, these things were happening 50-60 years ago - there are several famous Supreme Court cases involving Jehovah's Witnesses who refused to recite the Pledge of Allegiance, etc. A little more recently (30 years) there was the Supreme Court case that allowed a New Hampshire-ite to "deface" his license plate by covering up the state's motto, "Live Free or Die."
The observation that "patriotism is often the last refuge of scoundrels" is not a recent construct. And your dire jeremiad that this is a sign of the end-Obama times is just plain nonsense.
That being said, if I were sharing an office with the flag-owner I might have objected to the size (3 feet by five feet is awfully big for a small cubicle-type office, but it's unclear how big the space was), but not to the message of the flag, and I think it's sad that this woman's co-workers were so insecure as to object.
The Baron adds:
So my advice to my fellow Americans — especially those who live in California, Vermont, or Massachusetts — is to fly the flag early and often.
And buy ammo, while you still can.
Well Baron, you have combined a highly patriotic statement with one of the most un-American odious concepts I have ever seen - that it is the right of a political opponent of a majority party to turn to armed rebellion at the drop of a hat.
Hopefully your last statement was a joke - otherwise you are a joke, albeit a dangerous one.
thanks to vladtepes for recommending Indoctrinate U and Brainwashing 101...! Truly scary stuff.
Judging from my experiences at european and american universities, I would say that
1. multiculturalism
2. The Politically Correct and
3. Affirmative action
are all clearly cases of American Ideas.
Secondly... the emphasis on the race-gender-gay trinity as a way to divert attention from the topic and propagate on every single subject is also an american invention.
In a way it seems that all the applicable stuff comes from USA whereas the high-browed yadda-yadda theory tend to be european. As far as I can see, the yadda-yadda is much less a danger than the american left-wing intellectuals.
... but please correct me if I am wrong. I wouldn´t want it to seem as if being a european would make me "want" it to be americas fault. After all, I am a truthlovin´man.
Its not a US invention it is Leftwing inventions, especially the 60s New Left and those Baby Boomers march through the instiutions.
EV,
"I think the Eastern Europeans got a mouthful of the full realization of Leftism, and have no desire to play that game anymore. They understand more fully the deprivation, the lies, the spin, the indoctrination...that the Left brings to the table."
I used to think exactly that but nowadays I am not so sure. Lech Walesa supports the Lisbon Treaty. Why? The Hungarian Socialist Party (direct successors to the Communists) have been the srongest party in Hungary since 1989. Again, why? Why did any of the Eastern European nations, much less virtually all of them, join the European Union in the first place?
Soft leftism (as opposed to Communism) is not taboo in Western Europe or America so why should it be viewed with deep suspicion by Eastern Europe? I fear that East Europeans are just as susceptible to an ideological encroachment of soft, seductive leftist ideas as us Westerners have been. Also it's possible that a lot of the Communist indoctrination that people were subjected to stuck in the mind or at least was not mentally expunged in its entirety.
Vaclav Havel's great "moral contamination" speech in Czechoslavkia, in 1990, was not replicated in kind by every other Eastern European nation. So who knows?
I appreciate your comments there. Yes its not all clear cut.
I do think that joining the EU was clearly an economic benefit for those nations who were reeling from the legacy of Communism, so the decision to join the EU was not so formulated in a full belly, lets think this through manner.
BTW, I love the Czechs! They rock!
I have an illegal alien immigrant Czech friend here. Very nice fellow....even if he is a little EU starry eyed....and has some European mythological viewpoints.
Gordon,
"The observation that "patriotism is often the last refuge of scoundrels" is not a recent construct."
When Samuel Johnson formulated that particular construct he wasn't impugning patriotism in general - he was specifically referring to supporters of the Patriot Party in England.
The modern equivalent of this misunderstanding would be somebody writing that "Conservatism is the last refuge of a scoundrel" in reference to the Conservative Party in Britain and millions of people believing, hundreds of years later, that the writer had impugned conservatism as a political tendency or a set of beliefs as immoral.
EV,
Thanks.
"BTW, I love the Czechs! They rock!"
I share your admiration for the Czech people.
I especially like Vaclav Klaus and the artists responsible for the Entropa artwork which used the currency of the modern art world, tounge-in-cheek post-modern abstraction, to express the truth about the EU - that all the different nations muddled together for convenience are too 'diverse' to really unify in any meaningful sense.
Europa! Thats great...thanks for posting.
Yes Vaclav Klaus rocks.
The Czech's were always pissing off the Soviets, too. Good on them.
I really wish the US and the Allies would have rallied the Wehrmacht and with their nuclear primacy set the Soviets straight right away and saved the world from so much anguish and suffering in the 20th century.
Nodrog: Hopefully your last statement was a joke - otherwise you are a joke, albeit a dangerous one.
Obviously our dear Nodrog is entirely unclear on the concept of how it is:
BETTER TO BE JUDGED BY TWELVE THAN TO BE CARRIED BY SIX.Or the less well known:
At all times the American people must possess sufficient firepower to, if necessary, take back its government by force.
And buy ammo, while you still can."Well Baron, you have combined a highly patriotic statement with one of the most un-American odious concepts I have ever seen - that it is the right of a political opponent of a majority party to turn to armed rebellion at the drop of a hat."
What absolute balderdash. An avowed enemy of nearly everything we hold dear has now been in office for four months, taking one measure after another to ensure his administration becomes a headless nail, and what have the political opponents of the "majority party" done thus far? Staged a few demonstrations that went largely unreported in the MSM save for obscene mockery (the "teabagging" gibe). Drop of a hat, my arse.
The Tea Parties are full of folks that need re educating in the Newly Made America.
EscapeVelocity: Actually the tea parties are proof of the failure of the existing education system in America, not even getting into the issue of RE-education. The ignorance proudly displayed by the Tea partiers tells me we need school choice and a voucher system - SOON!
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