THE SHAME OF OLD GLORY
By: David J. Maxham III
Last week, along with some fellow students[*], I went to Old Queens to ask if the Rutgers administration would consider putting American flags in classrooms. While I’m still not sure if we were surprised or if we expected the response that we got, it was saddening nonetheless.
On our way to Old Queens, we interviewed students on the street at random. Without exception, each agreed that the American flag should have a place in the classrooms of Rutgers’ hallowed halls. And really, why not? As one girl put it, “Well, it is the State University...”
Our first visit was to Assistant Dean Julie A. Traxler, who told us that she felt putting up the flag was “a bad idea” and that our time would be better spent on “other things.” Dean Traxler was quick to change the subject once we told her that we knew individuals that were ready and willing to pay for the flags. Incredibly, she expressed her dismay that there were people out there willing to fund flag in classrooms, but not our Rutgers sports programs. Horrors!
Next we spoke to Brian T. Rose, Assistant to Gregory Blimling, Vice President of Student Affairs at Rutgers. When I asked if we could hang American flags in classrooms, Mr. Rose didn’t miss a beat. “I don’t think so... but I’m willing to check into it for you.” Mr. Rose’s immediate logic was such: if one student group – for example, students who love America – put up an American flag, then that opens the floodgate to any other group – like the terrorism apologists at NJ Solidarity – to display a “message” of their choice. Or, as Mr. Rose put it, “Do we make our classrooms available for people to put up whatever message they want?” That’s an interesting question, albeit rhetorical.
Apparently Mr. Rose hasn’t been in a lot of classrooms recently, because many lecture halls and rooms are littered with posters and flyers, some of questionable and possibly offensive content, many of which have nothing to do with the subject taught in those rooms. Never mind the fact that courts have already ruled on the issue, finding that the American flag in and of itself does not constitute a distinct message belonging exclusively to one or another group or entity. It’s too bad people like Mr. Rose live in a world called Academia, a world that lives by its own rules, infringed upon by no external authority, least of all an authority that might disagree with Academia’s radical – and often anti-American – worldview.
We also paid a visit to Dean Michael Stillwagon, whose response included the brilliant deduction that with the American flag, “there’s an issue of propagandaing [sic].” Bad grammar aside, the notion that the American flag, minus any additional text or images, comprises “propaganda” is so mind-numbingly stupid that it hardly deserves a response. However, considering that this mindset seems to permeate the Rutgers faculty, my response is forthcoming.
For two hundred and thirty years, Americans have fought and died under the American flag. It was a symbol against British colonial oppression, and for the more than two centuries that followed, it was a unifying symbol for the millions upon millions of immigrants that came to this country – my own ancestors included. Our soldiers are buried with the flag, and the flag adorns every institution that makes our great Republic function. The flag doesn’t belong to any political party, any race or class, any sectarian ideology, any private club.
In short, the American flag belongs to all of us; according to the Supreme Court, even desecrating the flag is protected by the ideals of liberty the flag represents. For any official, either in the government or at our beloved alma mater, to eschew display of the one thing that all Americans have in common ought to be a matter of scandal and shame. Let’s end the politically correct garbage, and return Old Glory to a place of honor in our classrooms and in our consciousness.
NJO: Originally published in the September 2006 issue of The Centurion.
* Also James O'Keefe, who by this point was no longer a student, at Rutgers anyway.
