Supporting the Military: What Flying the American Flag Means to Me
The flag outside my house snaps in the high plains wind like a sail eager for open water. Some mornings I catch it glowing with that first slant of sun, the red so rich it looks wet, the blue almost purple. I have raised it in rain squalls and in powdery snow, during quiet Tuesdays and on the loudest of July nights. It started as a simple ritual. It became a promise. I grew up watching a neighbor, a Vietnam veteran with a limp and a grin, raise his flag at dawn with a ca
Open Prayer on Campus: Should Students Be Free to Pray Without Restriction?
A few years ago I sat with a high school junior in the guidance office after a minor dust-up in the lunchroom. He had bowed his head for a quick grace. A nearby student snapped that he was “making a scene.” No one had shouted. No one had tried to recruit anyone. Two kids, two views of public space, and a principal stuck in the middle trying to respect both. That small moment captures why this question never quite goes away: how do we treat faith in places meant for everyone
From Pride to Permission Slips: How Schools Shape National Identity
Walk into ten public schools and you will see ten diversified relationships with the flag. In one, the Stars and Stripes hangs in the back of a whiteboard, somewhat light, nonetheless anchoring the room. In one other, the American flag has been pulled all the way down to restore a broken mount and not at all back, whilst pupil-made banners for clubs and cultural celebrations fill the wall. In a 3rd, in simple terms the reputable state and countrywide flags are allowed, noth
Are We Building Unity—or Dividing It—By Regulating the USA Flag?
A few springs ago, a high school principal I know faced a storm over a 3-by-5 American flag draped on the back of a student’s pickup. After a minor confrontation in the parking lot, the administration met to decide what to do. They could have de-escalated with conversation and a reminder about safe driving. Instead, counsel advised a blanket rule: no flags on vehicles, period. It felt tidy on paper. In practice, it punished the kids who had never been the problem, and it ta
From Pride to Permission Slips: How Schools Shape National Identity
Walk into ten public colleges and you may see ten diverse relationships with the flag. In one, the Stars and Stripes hangs in the back of a whiteboard, a bit faded, nevertheless anchoring the room. In an additional, the American flag has been pulled all the way down to fix a broken mount and never back, even though pupil-made banners for clubs and cultural celebrations fill the wall. In a third, simply the authentic nation and countrywide flags are allowed, not anything els
Because It’s Patriotic: The Everyday Power of Flying the American Flag
Dawn breaks, the birds stir, and there is a hush that lives in the breath before sunlight. I have raised the Stars and Stripes in fog, in desert heat, and in the middle of a thunderstorm that made the pulley sing on the halyard. You tug the rope, hear the snaps bite the grommets, and feel a quiet line of connection run from your hands to a long lineage of hands that did the same. That small ceremony is not for show. It is For Love of My Country, for neighbors still asleep,
Free Expression in Classrooms: Inclusion or Ideological Gatekeeping?
Walk right into a public institution classroom in 1996, you possibly can pretty much truely see a small American flag close to the whiteboard, probably the nation flag, and several motivational posters. Visit that similar study room as of late, and the partitions inform a extra frustrating tale. The American flag should be would becould very well be there, or it may possibly had been changed with a rotating gallery of id or social flow flags. In some locations, teachers hav
Should Anyone Feel Uncomfortable Seeing the American Flag in America?
On my first day helping a small-town high school with a civics program, I paused in a quiet hallway and noticed an empty flag bracket near the auditorium doors. The principal told me it had been removed after a complaint that the flag made a few students feel unwelcome. No one was ordered to take it down. No legal letter arrived. Still, the flag disappeared. It was easier to store it in a closet than to host a conversation that might turn hot. Easier to sidestep hurt feelin