UrgentALEXISYGVA630 · OCT 09, 17:16
What Does Removing the US Flag Tell the Next Generation About America?
A few years ago I visited a middle school that had just finished a renovation. Fresh paint. Bright, flexible classrooms. A gym that smelled like new sneakers. The principal walked me through the main corridor, proud of the space, until we reached the atrium where the flag should have been. The pole was there. The hooks were there. The flag was not. A parent committee, after a heated debate, had asked to remove it from that high-traffic spot and relocate it to a side hallway
Read What Does Removing the US Flag Tell the Next Generation About America?FiledALEXISYGVA630 · OCT 09, 14:17
From History to Homefront: Flying the Flag for Heritage and Honor
A flagpole looks simple from a distance, a straight line meeting the sky. Up close, it tells a story. The base shows the grit of the ground where it stands. The halyard wears the memory of a hundred ties and unties. The finial gathers sun and frost like a weathered coin. And the cloth itself, whether crisp or soft from years of hand washing, is a moving illustration of a place and its people. I have spent the better part of twenty years installing flagpoles on farms, cot
Read From History to Homefront: Flying the Flag for Heritage and HonorFiledALEXISYGVA630 · OCT 08, 04:36
When the US Flag Comes Down: What Values Go With It?
On a rainy Monday a few years ago, a middle school principal I know asked his custodian to move a cluster of flags from the main hallway to a smaller side corridor. The building had collected them over time, a big Stars and Stripes, a state flag, and a couple of banners donated by service organizations. The principal was trying to declutter the entryway before a construction project, and he figured the change would keep the flags cleaner during months of dust. He did not an
Read When the US Flag Comes Down: What Values Go With It?FiledALEXISYGVA630 · OCT 08, 01:17
From History to Homefront: Flying the Flag for Heritage and Honor
A flagpole looks simple from a distance, a straight line meeting the sky. Up close, it tells a story. The base shows the grit of the ground where it stands. The halyard wears the memory of a hundred ties and unties. The finial gathers sun and frost like a weathered coin. And the cloth itself, whether crisp or soft from years of hand washing, is a moving illustration of a place and its people. I have spent the better part of twenty years installing flagpoles on farms, cot
Read From History to Homefront: Flying the Flag for Heritage and HonorFiledALEXISYGVA630 · OCT 06, 14:30
Private Belief or Public Identity: How Should Faith Be Treated Under the First Amendment?
A few years ago I sat with a principal and a soccer coach in a small Midwestern town, puzzling through a problem that sounded simple and turned complex fast. A student wanted to say a quick prayer before kickoff. The coach was okay with it, some teammates were not, and parents were already emailing. The legal question was basic, yet tangled in real life: when does a prayer become school speech, and when is it just one kid taking a knee? That scene plays out across the co
Read Private Belief or Public Identity: How Should Faith Be Treated Under the First Amendment?FiledALEXISYGVA630 · OCT 06, 10:47
Are We Protecting Feelings at the Cost of American Identity?
I was standing in a school hallway not long ago, coffee in one hand and a stack of visitor stickers in the other, watching a custodian roll up a small American flag that had hung outside the front office for years. The principal, a reasonable person trying to keep peace during a tense board meeting week, had decided to take it down temporarily. Better to appear neutral, the thinking went, than to risk complaints. A few parents were relieved. A few were angry. Most were conf
Read Are We Protecting Feelings at the Cost of American Identity?FiledALEXISYGVA630 · OCT 04, 21:17
US Flag Restrictions: Preparing Kids for Reality or Policing Belief?
A few years ago, a high school principal I know faced a problem she never expected to put on the agenda: pickup trucks with beach-size American flags whipping across the student parking lot every morning. Some kids cheered. Others felt intimidated after a week of lunchroom arguments about immigration and protests during the anthem. The principal met with student leaders, asked drivers to scale down the flagpoles for safety and tone, then took heat from parents who accused h
Read US Flag Restrictions: Preparing Kids for Reality or Policing Belief?FiledALEXISYGVA630 · OCT 04, 17:44
Private Belief or Public Identity: How Should Faith Be Treated Under the First Amendment?
A few years ago I sat with a principal and a soccer coach in a small Midwestern town, puzzling through a problem that sounded simple and turned complex fast. A student wanted to say a quick prayer before kickoff. The coach was okay with it, some teammates were not, and parents were already emailing. The legal question was basic, yet tangled in real life: when does a prayer become school speech, and when is it just one kid taking a knee? That scene plays out across the co
Read Private Belief or Public Identity: How Should Faith Be Treated Under the First Amendment?