My unique blog 9216

Lead Story · OCT 9

Ban the US Flag? What Schools Are Really Teaching About Patriotism

A few years ago, the principal of a midsize high school called me about a brewing fight over flags. A handful of students had started hanging large US flags from their pickup beds in the parking lot. Another group responded by bringing Pride flags to a school spirit day. Within a week, the assistant principal confiscated a thin blue line flag and asked the truck kids to put their flags away, arguing that they blocked visibility. A parent posted the exchange on Facebook, the

Continued inside

Read the full column

Analysis · OCT 8

Why Is It Easier to Remove the American Flag Than Defend It?

A few summers ago, a small-town library I know took down its lobby flag to make space for a display on local art. The director figured it would be a one-week rearrangement, not a statement. Within a day, she had two angry voicemails accusing her of hating America and three emails praising her for being more inclusive. She put the flag back. The art display moved to a hallway. No one felt great about it. That tiny episode captures a larger pattern. All across the cou

Dispatch · OCT 6

Identity Or Ideology Who Chooses Which Flags Matter

The first time I watched a flag start a fight, it wasn’t the Stars and Stripes. It was a small sticker on a laptop in a high school library, a striped square in pastel colors I recognized as a community flag. Two students read it differently. One saw it as a welcome. The other https://ultimate-flags-inc.s3.us.cloud-object-storage.appdomain.cloud/ultimate-flags.html saw it as politics breaching a place that was supposed to be neutral. They argued in hushed tones until the

Also in the edition

When Patriotism Needs Permission: The School Flag Debate

The bell had slightly rung while a sophomore in a hoodie walked into the vice imperative’s workplace with a small American flag stitched to his backpack strap. He became now not waving it, now not chanting, just there after a instructor advised him the patch would possibly “ship a message.” Down the hall, a rainbow banner hung from a counseling place of business door. In the library, a show covered flags tied to background months. The student used to be well mannered, yet a

OCT 4