HolyCoast: The Right Not to Be Offended
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Sunday, May 09, 2010

The Right Not to Be Offended

An item I read in regards to the Morgan Hill Cinco de Mayo flag-wearing students has been stuck in my mind since Friday, so I went back and dug up the offending excerpt:
About 200 Hispanic teens are marching in Morgan Hill yelling "We want respect!" and "Si se puede!" in reaction to a controversy ignited when the Live Oak High School principal effectively sent four students home for wearing T-shirts with American flags on them during Cinco de Mayo.

Mexican-American students felt the students were being disrespectful on the only day they celebrate their heritage while students sporting red, white and blue said it violated their First Amendment rights.
It's that last sentence that just grinds me. What in the heck are these kids being taught about the Constitution, if anything?

In order to follow the twisted logic that wearing red, white and blue on Cinco de Mayo violates someone else's First Amendment rights, this is what you have to believe about the First Amendment:
The First Amendment means I can say whatever I want to say and you can't stop me.

And the First Amendment means you can say whatever you want as long as it doesn't offend me.
It doesn't work that way, kids.  There is no constitutional right not to be offended.

The principal ordered the kids to remove the flag apparel or be sent home and possibly face suspension.  The claim was that this action was necessary for campus safety.  That brings up another question.  Who is being the threat the campus safety, the kids wearing the flag of their country, or the kids who are threatening violence against them?  Once again the wrong people get singled out for punishment.

After reading this horrible misinterpretation of the First Amendment by the students, if I were the Superintendent of that district I'd order every U.S. History and Government teacher to immediately review the First Amendment with their students...assuming the teachers know what it means.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

"...while students sporting red, white and blue said it violated their First Amendment rights."
I took the sentence to mean that the students who were wearing the American flag shirts (who were told to change shirts or leave school) where the ones saying that their First Amendment rights were violated.

Goofy Dick said...

The school administrator that told these students to remove or turn inside out their tee shirts which had the American Flag printed on them is not worthy of being on the school district payroll!!!! Nowhere do I see that the Mexicans have any rights to place the Mexican Flag at the top of a flagpole and then hang the American Flag upside down under it.
This act borders on treason!