Just a quick note

I should be sleeping since I have to work in a few hours. But I just saw a story on CNN that bothered me. It's late, and this is a purely emotional reaction. At a high school in California, on Cinco de Mayo 4 students were told to either go home or face suspension. Why? From my understanding, the Hispanic students were feeling disrespected by the clothes that the 4 students were wearing. The 4 students were wearing variations of either the American Flag or red white and blue. At a school board meeting one parent made a comment about would Americans feel if she wore a Mexican flag on the 4th of July? My first thought was that I would be happy that we live in a country that does have freedom of speech. I heard one person (a guest on CNN and I can't remember his name, but he is the author of a book called The Death of Common Sense) who compared the wearing red, white and blue to the wearing of gang colors.

I get that a lot of people don't like Americans. That's certainly their right. But for anyone to make the choice to come to our country and then not want us to show our respect and or love for our country, that does bother me on some level. One of the freedoms of this country is freedom of speech. And I agree that it can be taken too far. Had the T shirts said something like "go home Mexicans" then I could see the school's point of view. But the American flag? A symbol of the country that at least some chose to come to, a symbol of the freedoms that we do have here? That just feels wrong to me somehow.

I'm sure it's not the politically correct response. I'm sure some will say it's racist. But I like America, I like our freedoms. And for someone to tell me that wanting to show my respect for my own country, in my own country is wrong and not allowed because someone is offended? Yes, that does indeed bother me. A lot.