State Sen. Jim Dyer and I are hardly ideological clones. But I could not agree more with what the conservative Centennial Republican told me about Colorado’s public school students’ display of American flags.
“Respectful use of the American flag,” said Dyer, “doesn’t include shoving it in someone’s face or taunting.”
Flags are symbols, not weapons. Officials at Skyline High School in Longmont and Shaw Heights Middle School in Westminster needed to make that point. White and Latino kids at both schools had used flags and patriotic attire to taunt each other over immigration reform. That’s why principals stepped in and said students could not display flags or national colors at school.
I stand with my new political alter-ego Dyer, who says this was an overreaction.
But at least it was an honest mistake, made with children’s safety in mind.
The same can’t be said of the gratuitous political posturing by Dyer and others in the Colorado Senate. On Wednesday, by a 28-3 margin, with four members not voting, the Senate threatened to cut grant money for schools that don’t allow students to respectfully display the American flag.
It was as if kids across the state were showing up for class wrapped in the Stars and Stripes only to be turned away at the door.
They don’t, and they aren’t. What happened at Skyline and Shaw Heights was the byproduct of an ugly, angry national debate. Adult hatred spilled into schools where children faced off inappropriately. Principals protected students; they didn’t betray the country. For legislators to suggest otherwise is as wrong as stuffing an American flag in somebody’s face, then calling it patriotism.
The grandstanding here is worse than in geography teacher Jay Bennish’s anti-Bush classroom rant. Politicians hope for a leg up on an electoral wedge issue by misconstruing well-intended, if misguided, school decisions.
Republican Sens. Steve Johnson and Tom Wiens told me that restrictive policies at Skyline and Shaw Heights could cost both schools money under the budget amendment. Shaw changed its policy late Thursday. I hope Skyline follows suit when spring break ends Monday.
Neither Dyer nor Wiens, two of Colorado’s most conservative senators, think symbols amount to fighting words, whether or not they refer to other countries.
“I can’t imagine how the Union Jack or even the Mexican flag on a jacket would be offensive,” Dyer said.
Johnson, who represents Larimer County, complained that cops took American flags from the cars of students at Skyline.
I’m with Johnson. Taking flags from student cars sends the wrong message.
In a land where immigration reform is only about law and order, not racism, the right response would have been for Longmont police to investigate two students who school officials said “utilized the flag of the United States in a harassing, intimidating and inflammatory manner.”
That’s not patriotism; it’s borderline criminal behavior. Sure, right-wing talk shows would still be having a field day, but state senators would have had to honestly assess their motives.
Wiens told me that the U.S. should “place a higher value on the American flag” than it does on the flags of other countries. As a guy whose mother-in-law once chewed him out for hanging a flag the wrong way from his house, I agree with Wiens.
Trouble is, no one at Skyline or Shaw Heights has said Old Glory is only as important as the Mexican flag. American flags decorate both schools. Students say the Pledge of Allegiance both places. Respect exists for the American flag; what’s missing is respect for other people.
Though he disagrees with my stand on the Senate budget amendment, Dyer actually summed up the hype as well as I could.
“This is not an all-or-none question,” he admitted. “It seems like that when you’re debating it. When you see little news clips and sound bites, it gets to be far more polarizing than it is.”
Or should become.
Jim Spencer’s column appears Monday, Wednesday and Friday. He can be reached at 303-820-1771 or jspencer@denverpost.com.
This article has been corrected in this online archive. Originally, due a reporting error, it stated that Sen. Steve Johnson represents Longmont. He represents Larimer County.
