Censorship is up and common sense is down. Before we know it, apple pie and baseball will be banned.
Political correctness is hitting an all-time high, yet our standards are hitting an all-time low.
Using reasonable judgment is now tossed out the window in favor of punishing everyone because of not wanting to hurt someone’s feelings.
Instead of cracking down harder on crime and perhaps putting more money into gang control programs, we are punishing patriotic students and preventing basic First Amendment rights.
Let’s look at a recent case lacking common sense:
Last month, on Sept. 11, students at a high school in Sampson County, N.C., were denied the right to wear American flag T-shirts.
It has been only six years since our country suffered the greatest loss in history, and students want to show support. What happened to the American pride displayed so strongly around our nation during the weeks following that attack?
American flags were proudly displayed on bumper stickers, car antennas, homes, businesses and T-shirts. There was even a shortage of Old Glory, remember?
An article in USA Today written Sept. 16, 2001, said nationwide, Wal-Mart had sold 250,000 flags in all sizes since the attack and, Wal-Mart and other retailers at that time reported flags were out of stock and on back order all across the nation.
Today, American flag makers probably either have been laid-off because they’re no longer needed or live in China.
The superintendent of schools in the county where the ban took place, told an NBC reporter the situation was unfortunate, but educators didn’t want to be forced to pick and choose which flags should be permissible.
That last time we viewed a U.S. map, North Carolina was on it. And what about the U.S. flag flying high at the high school where the T-shirts were banned?
ill we soon stoop to the level of “But if we allow our flag to fly at the White House, we will have to let other countries display theirs too.”
After much protest, and a letter from the American Civil Liberties Union condemning the school policy as a “violation of students’ free speech under the First Amendment,” the no-flag ban was lifted at the high school.
Needless censorship is nothing new; it’s just getting worse. A 13-year-old in Schenectady, N.Y., was threatened with suspension after wearing a homemade necklace with red, white and blue beads in 2005.
She said she made the necklace to wear out of respect and love for several family members who were serving in the military in Iraq, according to a Sept. 19 story in The Washington Times, but the school claimed it violated school dress code banning gang-related items.
It’s time to step up to the plate and take action on the issues damaging our communities, not the ones building them up. But we must hurry; if baseball is banned, there will be no plate.
