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Gadsden Flag Victory?
A Colorado elementary school student wore a backpack to school with a Gadsden Flag (“Don’t Tread on Me”). School staff told him he could not have that backpack at school due to its “origins in slavery and the slave trade.” In effect, the Gadsden Flag is the equivalent of the Confederate War Flag, according to his school staff.
His mother met with staff and recorded the exchange. The recording was published on social media. School Board intervenes. Now, the student can wear the backpack to school. In reporting this victory, Red State includes the following:
The mother of the young boy, who is named Jaiden, filmed the meeting she had with the director of the school. In it, you can hear her push back on the idea that the Gadsden flag is about slavery, noting that its origins are in the Revolutionary War. The director remained combative throughout the video, claiming that she had to enforce the policy provided by the district. [emphasis added]
What goes unstated in the report is the origins of the claim by the staff. The staff is “educated” by the 1619 Project. And one of the Project claims is that the Revolutionary War came about to protect slavery in the colonies:
Significant controversy has centered on the project’s claim that “one of the primary reasons the colonists decided to declare their independence from Britain was because they wanted to protect the institution of slavery.” According to Princeton Universityprofessor Sean Wilentz, the claim that there was a “perceptible British threat to American slavery in 1776” is an ahistorical assertion, noting that the British abolitionist movement was practically non-existent in 1776.[55] Wilentz also criticized the project’s mentioning the Somerset v Stewart case to support its argument, since that legal decision concerned slavery in England, with no effect in the American colonies.[55] Wilentz wrote that the project’s claims that “if the Revolution had caused the ending of the slave trade, this would have upended the economy of the colonies, in both the North and the South” did not consider the numerous attempts to outlaw—or impose prohibitive duties on—the slave trade by several colonies from 1769 to 1774.[55] The historians critical of the project have said that many of America’s Founding Fathers, such as John Adams, James Otis, and Thomas Paine, opposed slavery. They also said that every state north of Maryland took steps to abolish slavery after the revolution.[44]
So we have a staff that is indoctrinated by the 1619 Project that sees anything reflecting American history as having origins in slavery and the slave trade, and a School Board believing that American history includes both pro- and anti-slavery elements and that the Revolutionary War was not fought to preserve slavery.
Is this victory? No, this means we have a serious problem. The staff will not be “re-educated” as a result of the School Board decision. They are only told that in one particular way, they are limited in enforcing their beliefs. This School Board has a miseducated staff plying students with miseducation.
And this is not one school. This includes many, many schools, a teacher’s union, and likely more than a few school boards.
Poison is flowing in the bloodstream of American education.
Published in General
Sorry, I am taking victories as they come. The governor came out against this ban, the school board came out against this ban and the child and mother firmly stood their ground by firmly rejecting their claims. First whiff of sanity in a long time. Yes, it points out the depth of the problem. But it also points out the solution. Just say NO.
At least the school board made the right decision. In many places the school board would be just as ignorant and probably expel the kid.
FIFY
Take the W in this battle. It is not the war just another battle. Win enough battles and then the tide turns.
The long march back through the institutions is going to be a generation long slog. I am not sure the Right has the inclination or the energy to pursue it.
FYI, an early draft of the Declaration of Independence had the persistence of slavery as one of the King’s usurpations. Unfortunately, there were objections to the statement, but the course of history was set.
He [King George] has waged cruel war against human nature itself, violating its most sacred rights of life and liberty in the persons of a distant people who never offended him, captivating & carrying them into slavery in another hemisphere or to incur miserable death in their transportation thither. This piratical warfare, the opprobrium of infidel powers, is the warfare of the Christian King of Great Britain. Determined to keep open a market where Men should be bought & sold, he has prostituted his negative for suppressing every legislative attempt to prohibit or restrain this execrable commerce. And that this assemblage of horrors might want no fact of distinguished die, he is now exciting those very people to rise in arms among us, and to purchase that liberty of which he has deprived them, by murdering the people on whom he has obtruded them: thus paying off former crimes committed again the Liberties of one people, with crimes which he urges them to commit against the lives of another.
Only if it’s tied to some kind of Country Club initiative or a National Review cruise.
Fair enough. But I wish I could be sure that all private schools were not infected. But I know for a fact that is not true.
I’m not sure that they wouldn’t, given the opportunity, over-pursue it to the point of rah-rah US boosterism that would produce smug ignorance rather than the current cynical ignorance.
It would be lovely if classes in history and the functions of government could focus on facts, but we long to read things in the form of ‘narratives’ and idealogues long to write those narratives.
I’m not so sure it isn’t already too late to save most institutions.
Every time I hear about a victory, I celebrate! There are so many times we could be discouraged, so when we’ve made inroads, I am delighted. Especially when we see so many constituents engaged. I am a long way from giving up!
Victories are an illusion • we are worse today than ever despite all the “victories.” They de mere speed bumps for the left.
That’s fine with me. If we keep making progress and they don’t notice, they’ll do less to fight back.
Biden inc and the permanent bureaucracy wants a new version of the flag – “We will tread on you – and you will like it”
They have one already:
I am thinking it would look something like this
Progress?
C’mon, RH. When one side in a war, sets back the other side, it’s progress, or victory, or makes inroads. You don’t have to agree with me.
Where am I wrong?
-Abortion. We got Roe overturned and abortion sent back to states. Leftie states in anger are pushing for more extreme abortion laws in their states. Conservative states are passing the laws they want only to be stopped by courts. We are finding out abortion has more supporters on our side than we thought. They had been lying to us before. Now they want us to shut up and give up because they blame pro life for election losses. Dems are running on using Congress to make their abortion wishes the law of the land.
-Debt. We have spent to the point we can’t recover.
-Spending. Out of control.
-Religion. Still under assault. Church attendance continues to decline. The cake baker continues to be sued. New law suites pop up to replace ones he just won.
-Guns. The calls to ban them continue.
-Military. China has passed us. Defense is not meeting recruiting goals.
-Border control. Biden undid all that Trump did.
-Secure voting. Nothing done.
-Corruption in government. Getting worse.
-Dem power. Increasing despite Biden’s bad policies. We are told we can’t win elections, especially with the policies we want.
-CRT. Schools are still teaching the same poison.
A lot of things in politics no longer surprise me.
This did. I didn’t realize how many supposedly on our side who mouthed pro-life platitudes would jettison that position as soon as they felt power slipping away.
I wasn’t just Trump after all.
And the poison is present in many private schools.
Aye, but that’s their problem. Public schools are everybody’s problem.
And that’s the truthhhh!
I’d be OK with the pendulum swinging back too far, but the pendulum seems to be swinging harder than ever towards the commie direction.
Agreed.
I could wish for less swinging.
But we also need a significant supply of alternative schools.
Yes. Even stupid ones as above.
There’s a lot of people who want some access to abortion, but want it heavily restricted. They opposed the abortion until graduation crowd, but really don’t want to rule it out in hard cases. For example, some people support the morning after pill, but also support heartbeat bills. Basically, you could probably massively reduce the number of abortions, but never entirely eliminate it.
The problem with compromises: The left has no guardrails. We have already seen they are never content but will push until they can kill up to birth.
Some of them don’t stop at birth.