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An NBC sports writer complained on Monday that "the entire right wing media" came after him after he complained about the use of American flags at Major League baseball games.
What's wrong with the flag?
"It's too political."
University student leaders have officially made it "optional" to display the flag at their leadership meetings.
What's wrong with the flag?
"The concept of the United States of America and patriotism is different for every individual."
When the Atlanta Braves unfurled a gigantic flag for the playing of the national anthem Sunday, it prompted an ultra sensitive member of the partisan Left media to meltdown.
NBC sports writer Craig Calcaterra's Twitter feed was inundated Monday after Calcaterra commented, "Will you keep politics out of sports, please. We like sports to be politics-free."
Does he really believe the flag is simply a "political statement?"
Apparently. And I'm not the only one asking.
A lot of people are asking what the journalist---who is free to express his political opinions at will--- is thinking.
Calcaterra explained: "People often wrap themselves in a flag in order to achieve political ends...Maybe a flag, in and of itself, isn't always political. A two-acre flag with a military flyover is saying something very specific, however."
And what would they be saying?
The journalist explains:
"Let us not pretend for one second that displays of conspicuous patriotism haven't spiked dramatically in our country over the past 16 years. Let us not pretend for one second that they persist for all the same reasons that initially inspired them. Let us not pretend that, over more than a decade and a half of it, many have not learned how effective it is to leverage patriotism to aid their political careers, their images, or their marketability and the marketability of their brands."
This man is paid by NBC to report on sports, but instead, he has turned his platform into a soapbox on socialism, and a lecture against patriotism.
And he wasn't satisfied with posting his disdain for the flag at baseball games on Twitter, he also continued on the NBC Sports website.
If it were not for what the flag represents---paid for with the blood of better men and women than he-- Mr. Calcaterra would be punished, and in some totalitarian countries, it would be the harshest kind of punishment.
His victim status may well be more about his inability to offer those who disagree with him the same freedom he claims while belittling our flag and what it stands for.
MRC wondered in writing if he and others in the far Left media would be so offended by a display of the homosexual rainbow flag and all it stands for. Clearly they would not be offended---or they would have already spoken out-- that homosexuals wrap themselves in their rainbow flag, splash their rainbow colors across the White House and carry their flag down public streets, shutting down for traffic and taking over the parks and town squares under the banner of their flag which makes their political statement.
The student leadership at University of California (UC Davis) has also taken steps to be sure no one is offended by Old Glory.
The UC student senate has made it "optional" to display the American flag at its meetings.
The resolution they have passed says "the concept of United States of America and patriotism is different for every individual..."
The decision by the student leadership has stirred up more than a little controversy.
Many students disagree, and more than a few alums have promised they will not be donating to school programs in the future.
Following the backlash, Jose Antonio Meneses, who introduced the resolution, says everybody is misunderstanding him. He now says-- with his back to the wall-- he introduced the resolution to ensure that the student government is following federal law that Jose says doesn't allow an organization to mandate displaying the flag.
He says he is protecting the school from a lawsuit.
Sure he is.
He cites a 1943 US Supreme Court decision that found West Virginia could not compel students to salute the flag or recite the Pledge of Allegiance.
But the flag was just standing in place. No one was demanding anyone salute or pledge anything.
Jose explained Monday that if the flag is even in sight, it's still a problem.
"The opinion in that case," he says, "is that you can't force people to pledge your allegiance, by [the flag] being there; by extension, you are pledging your allegiance to a symbol that you don't relate to or that you don't equate yourself with."
He is suggesting any sighting of a flag equates to pledging allegiance to it?
In the world of Jose Meneses, I suppose we should immediately begin removing flags from post offices, schools, federal buildings, private homes and cemeteries---especially cemeteries.
Can you imagine the stress and the sense of compulsory allegiance Meneses would experience driving through a military cemetery---the flags would be overwhelming.
It would probably never occur to Meneses or his friends who "do not equate themselves to the flag" that all those little flags in rows across the grassy slopes represent a life that was given for his freedom. And the little flags represent that freedom. And honor the personal sacrifice.
George Washington had this understanding of our first flag:
"We take the stars from heaven, the red from our mother country, separating it by white stripes, thus showing that we have separated from her, and the white stripes shall go down to posterity, representing our liberty. "
The great Paul Harvey once said, "The American Flag stands for freedom and safety from extreme elements around the world. No matter what our political Left says, America is the destination people look to for opportunity and safety. America is also reviled by those who bully, intimidate or worse. Let's work to keep the Flag as a symbol of 'the shining city on the hill'."
Be Free. Be Blessed. Be Faithful.