Originally published here on this day in 2015.
Peyton Robinson, who stood up to a ban on the American flag at his school
[See also: Anti-White Hecklers Veto Endorsed by the Supreme Court; American Flag Stays Banned]
The American state once again warred on the American nation today, this time by banning the American flag from a student's truck.
Peyton Robinson said he got the bad news from a school administrator Wednesday morning.The 18-year-old senior at York Comprehensive High School was told he wasn’t allowed to fly his American flag and POW-MIA flag in the bed of his pickup truck.
“He said, ‘We’re having some issues. Some people were complaining about the flags in your truck,’” Robinson told WBTV-TV. He said the administrator said the flags could “possibly” be offensive, and told Robinson to take them down before coming back to the South Carolina school Thursday.
But apparently, Robinson didn’t have to lift a finger.
He told WBTV that at some point Wednesday, a school official unscrewed the bolts securing the flags to his truck and laid them in the bed “when I wasn’t even there.”
[School official tells student he can't fly U.S. Flag on his truck—See How Badly That Decision Backfired, by Dave Urbanski, The Blaze, May 14, 2015]
School officials later said it was about "safety concerns." But we know that's not the case because the student in question was told the issue was complaints about the flags and how they could be "offensive."
There's a happy ending to the tale, as 70 vehicles waving Old Glory defied the ban and eventually school backed down.
'Merica
Or is there a happy ending? Robinson explained his position this way.
“I’d understand if it was the Confederate flag or something that might offend somebody,” he added. “I wouldn’t do that. But an American flag — that’s our country’s flag. I have every right to do it."
The problem is that the American flag does offend people, quite a few people in fact. And they tend to be the exact same people who are offended by the Confederate flag, which is, in Peter Brimelow's words, "simply the emblem of the white Southern component of the American nation" and until quite recently, "not seen as objectionable at all."
Indeed, the American flag has already been banned (at least on clothing) at American public schools precisely because "American" students of Mexican descent find it offensive. They see it (quite right) as the flag of their country, not ours.
What's offensive is not the flag, but those who are offended by it. Robinson's defiance is praiseworthy, and he and his friends certainly showed more spirit than many students these days. But his defense is untenable, and in the long run, it won't be enough to save the flag, or the actually existing nation and people it stands for.