Excerpted from Letters to the Editor, “…The last time I checked, the American flag doesn’t represent George Bush and his administration of idiots. If it did, I would shred and burn the stars and stripes every day. But they don’t. They represent freedom. Freedom from oppression.
Wendy Oshima’s little daughter had an art project. So what if she picked the American flag. The last time I checked, peace signs and smiley faces weren’t offensive.
I would like to say hooray for Wendy Oshima and her little daughter. You two make America worth living in.
Tyler Bradford, Chico”
Tyler, you are right, our flag doesn’t represent the President, but our President does represent the flag. That simple concept has profound implications and it tends to separate us from many other lesser nations, especially dictatorships. Consequently, we rightly have high expectations from our President. Our political pursuasion defines our expectations and creates some division, but ultimately we tend to be reunited in our mutual goal for a better America. This is democracy at it’s best.
When those expectations and divisions are drawn along radicalized, ideological lines, that mutual goal for a better America gets lost in the fighting. This is democracy at it’s worst and when this happens, we all suffer to some extent and our divisions become more polarized. We become a nation divided.
As an example of this radical division, those caught up in this sort of thing tend to suffer from being over emotional, filled with frustration and blinded by hate. The enemy of their enemy becomes their friend. Case in point is this protestor Oshima who was flying 3 enemy flags over a descecrated American flag..those countries hated Bush and that makes them ok with Oshima. Wendy O was playing it up for the headlines, just to push her own agenda, without regard to how it might affect others. Oshima selected these 3 nations flags because they are known for their anti-American views and claimed she just showing solidarity for these people oppressed by America.
All three of these countries are known for their cheering crowds that turned out on 9/11 to celebrate the murders of thousands of Americans…where was their solidarity with OUR people? Wendy’s flags of choice represented that extremism that pushes us ever more towards a nation divided and and how that has escaped your attention is troubling, because it must be done deliberately.
Wendy Oshima was playing it up for the headlines, just to push her own agenda, without regard to how it might affect others. Oshima selected these 3 nations flags because they are known for their anti-American views. That anti-American sentiment has been around for decades, long before any Bush was in office, yet to hear the left, the world was near perfect before Bush came along. Well, obviously that’s not quite true. Bush critic,Nobel Peace Prize winner and democrat, ex-President Jimmy Carter, was the focus of many staged “Hate America” protests in the mideast, especially in Iran. And he’s the epitomy of a successful liberal, but he scored no points for his peaceful nature, rather terrorists capitolized on it.
Now fast foward from the Carter years to Chico and here we have Wendy Oshima flying the flags of enemy nations. A display of her contempt for America and hatred for Bush. A display, as she puts it for solidarity with the people of those evil nations. People that openly hate us and regularly decry “Death to America”! It’s bizzare. However, that flag display as repugnant as it may be, is almost mild compared to the new wave of “radical ideology” that is tearing this nation apart.
Your “hooray” for Oshima tells me you haven’t fully recognized where your patriotism belongs and you have some growing up to do. “I think patriotism is like charity — it begins at home.” ~ Henry James