Dear Texas, You’ve been doing a lot wrong lately. Sincerely, America.
Last week, as our country was outraged by the events and tragedies in the Middle East, here at home we were further denigrating America. A Texas school district removed an American flag [pictured below] with Obama’s face on the right side and the words “Obama 44th President. 56th Inauguration January 20, 2009”. What is this…Cuba?

The flag was displayed in a classroom in southeast Texas for nearly a week before it was removed. After a flood of emails from parents, the principal removed the flag herself. Diane Boyett, communications director for the Victoria Independent School District said “the flag was displayed in a disciplinary classroom reserved or in-school suspensions and used by “very few students“. She also said the teacher meant no disrespect and that it had “no political undertones”. She compared it to placing a picture of George Washington or John F. Kennedy on the wall in a classroom. Seriously? Displaying a photo for learning purposes and posting political memorabilia are two very different things.

Teachers claim day in and day out to be “public servants”. Public servants are not allowed to campaign while in the classroom. And let’s not forget what a terrible example this is setting for children: defacing a flag, honoring a politician, forced political indoctrination…the level of offensiveness is beyond measure.

Our flag is a symbol of our freedom. The epitome of America. Representing vigilance, perseverance, justice, and valor. It used to be disturbing, upsetting and reprehensible to deface a flag with “any mark, insignia, letter, word, figure, design, picture or drawing of any nature” (US. Flag code).  Now people just smile and flip the TV back to ‘The Voice’ or ‘Honey Boo Boo’. Before you are a Republican, Democrat, Libertarian, or whatever you’d like to label or not label yourself, you are an American. Never ever ever should someone’s face appear on the American flag.

If you don’t see something wrong with this…you need to take a cold shower and wake up! With the violence overseas where they are removing OUR flag and replacing it with things we don’t believe in and killing fellow Americans, we should, at a very minimum, respect the flag here at home.