Love it or leave it!

[olde_fashioned]

Wow, patriotism is a sin?

I wonder if the Founding Fathers ever thought they should have protected our right to display an American flag by putting it into writing.

Any bets that no one would have dared complain if this woman had decided to hang a gay rights flag instead of the always-evil and ever-dreaded American flag? It's such a symbol of tyranny and opression wherever you go!

I humbly submit that if having an American flag offends you so much, you go back to wherever you came from, or take the first flight out of the US.

What next?

Nevermind, I don't think I want to know. *headhands*

Woman Upset After American Flag Taken Down At Work

MANSFIELD (CBS 11 News)


Is it okay to show your patriotism at the office?

For one Arlington woman, the answer was "no" after she hung an American flag in her office just before the Memorial Day weekend.

Debbie McLucas is one of four hospital supervisors at Kindred Hospital in Mansfield. Last week, she hung a three-by-five foot American flag in the office she shares with the other supervisors.

When McLucas came to work Friday, her boss told her another supervisor had found her flag offensive. "I was just totally speechless. I was like, 'You're kidding me,'" McLucas said.

McLucas' husband and sons are former military men. Her daughter is currently serving in Iraq as a combat medic.

Stifling a cry, McLucas said, "I just wonder if all those young men and women over there are really doing this for nothing."

McLucas said the supervisor who complained has been in the United States for 14 years and is formerly from Africa. McLucas said that supervisor took down the flag herself.

"The flag and the pole had been placed on the floor," McLucas said. But McLucas also said hospital higher-ups had told her some patients' families and visitors had also complained.

"I was told it wouldn't matter if it was only one person," she said. "It would have to come down."

McLucas said hospital bosses told her as far as patriotism was concerned, the flag flying outside the hospital building would have to suffice.

"I find it very frightening because if I can't display my flag," McLucas asked, "whatother freedoms will I lose before all is said and done?"

Read the rest of the story HERE.

Comments

[princessjune.livejournal.com]

Omg!

I'm utterly shocked! They live in our country and find our flag offensive?!

As you stated, they should leave our country and catch the first flight out of here! They have no business in our country if they find our flag offensive!

So many young men & women under 30 & under 25 have died in the Middle East to make this a free country and give them/ those ungrateful people the right to live here and prosper and they're offended by our flag?

I wish we could get those *parasites* out of our country since they're so offended by our flag!

[olde-fashioned.livejournal.com]

I know. How is it that people can live here and decide that patriotism for our country is offensive?? Personally I find parasites like this (as you so aptly called them) offensive. *scowls*

[ladyneferankh.livejournal.com]

I fail to see how any US citizen could find the American flag "offensive". And even if one is not a citizen but instead a (presumably legal) visitor one is a guest of this country.

I just want to ask--Whatever happened to freedom of expression???

[olde-fashioned.livejournal.com]

She needs to go right back to Africa, that's what she needs. *scowls darkly*

[carmiana.livejournal.com]

I totally am with you, this whole attitude that just one person can dictate what can or can't be done because it offends them is just plain hooey! What about the woman who had to take down the flag? Does it not matter if she is offended for having to take it down? It's okay if she's offended, but heaven forbid if anyone else is.

Did you happen to see this story a couple of days ago?

SAN DIEGO -- A local pastor and his wife claim they were interrogated by a San Diego County official, who then threatened them with escalating fines if they continued to hold Bible studies in their home, 10News reported.

Attorney Dean Broyles of The Western Center For Law & Policy was shocked with what happened to the pastor and his wife.

Broyles said, "The county asked, 'Do you have a regular meeting in your home?' She said, 'Yes.' 'Do you say amen?' 'Yes.' 'Do you pray?' 'Yes.' 'Do you say praise the Lord?' 'Yes.'"

The county employee notified the couple that the small Bible study, with an average of 15 people attending, was in violation of County regulations, according to Broyles.

Broyles said a few days later the couple received a written warning that listed "unlawful use of land" and told them to "stop religious assembly or apply for a major use permit" -- a process that could cost tens of thousands of dollars.

"For churches and religious assemblies there's big parking concerns, there's environmental impact concerns when you have hundreds or thousands of people gathering. But this is a different situation, and we believe that the application of the religious assembly principles to this Bible study is certainly misplaced," said Broyles.

News of the case has rapidly spread across Internet blogs and has spurred various reactions.

Broyles said his clients have asked to stay anonymous until they give the county a demand letter that states by enforcing this regulation the county is violating their First Amendment right to freely exercise their religion.

Broyles also said this case has broader implications.

"If the county thinks they can shut down groups of 10 or 15 Christians meeting in a home, what about people who meet regularly at home for poker night? What about people who meet for Tupperware parties? What about people who are meeting to watch baseball games on a regular basis and support the Chargers?" Broyles asked.

Broyles and his clients plan to give the County their demand letter this week.

If the County refuses to release the pastor and his wife from obtaining the permit, they will consider a lawsuit in federal court.

[olde-fashioned.livejournal.com]

Oh, my gawsh, no I hadn't seen that...I don't even know what to say. This kind of thing makes me think of Left Behind...*facepalm* It's utterly disgusting. Thank you for bringing it to my attention, though!

[airehen.livejournal.com]

Ugh. Yeeouch.

Really - why be a citizen of a country if it's official symbol, flag, etc. offends you so much. But don't take it out on others.

*sarcasm* Sure, tolerance for everybody...r-i-g-h-t. *end sarcasm*

So it's unpatriotic to be patriotic. Okay, is that even supposed to be possible?!

[olde-fashioned.livejournal.com]

Yeah, tolerance. That's what we are supposed to exhibit towards the intolerant.

[greeneyedmissy.livejournal.com]

*slaps forehead*

Okay, this doesn't make sense to me. These people, no matter how long they've been living in the US, are not American, but they insist that WE (Americans) remove OUR national symbol because it offends THEM?

Something is just not right.

I can't imagine going to live in another country, say Canada or Scotland and be offended that someone I work with has displayed their national flag in their office. Much less, go into that office, remove their flag and put it on the floor! Can you imagine just how fast I'd be kicked out of that country?? But no, not America apparently. This employer sided with the ones offended.

Other countries don't do this. They have something called... that we've seemed to have gotten rid of...patriotism.

[olde-fashioned.livejournal.com]

I suggest we remove all those who are offended by our flag because WE AMERICANS find them offensive!

I'm right there with you. I would never ever even dream of going to another country and being offended by their flag. (Especially one I was living in!)

[epea-pteroenta.livejournal.com]

It seems like a story blown out of proportion by the media to get cheap attention on the ever popular issue of patriotism.

The issue seems to be the flag's size. Whether or not patriotism has anything to do with the actual issue seems to be a moot point. It is impossible to tell from a newspaper article what exactly the hospital said to the woman. Obviously they have been forced to apologise, but I can't help feeling that it is likely they were merely enforcing hospital policy about what is appropriate to display. A 3ft by 5ft flag is pretty large... And this then got misinterpreted. Of course I don't know this... but I don't feel inclined to get worked up about it.

I know I'm not American, so perhaps I can't judge properly (or perhaps shouldn't even attempt to do so) but I do know that if this same news report was found in Britain, I would feel pretty certain that the whole thing was blown out of proportion in order to get a knee jerk reaction and had very little to do with the original situation.

[ceallaighgirl.livejournal.com]

Size? Her flag was on a pole. So unless she sprayed her flag with amazing quantities of hairspray or starch to make it stick straight out, I hardly think that size WAS the actual problem.

[olde-fashioned.livejournal.com]

Hairspray, hahaha! Hairspray. *giggles*

[olde-fashioned.livejournal.com]

How can someone be offended by an item's size? If size was truly the issue, there never would have been any talk of offense. IMO that's just the excuse they conjured up to cover themselves.

I don't know how much like our media your press is, but I'll bet they're about as bad. And yes, they blow things out of proportion here all the time, but not usually things like this which should outrage true American citizens.

[princessjune.livejournal.com]

I get your point but as ceallaighgirl stated :

Size? Her flag was on a pole. So unless she sprayed her flag with amazing quantities of hairspray or starch to make it stick straight out, I hardly think that size WAS the actual problem.

The woman who reported the flag was African, and she stated that she found the flag "offensive". Now imagine for instance that an African person hung a flag of Africa in their office and an American or British person that lives and works in Africa complained and said they found the African flag offensive... How do you think Africans would react? What do you think would happen to the American or British person?

They'd most likely be shot or called a rascist...

The woman who complained is also ignorant, by saying the American flag is offensive when she lives and works in the US and is able to prosper here... She is insulting the *African American's* who fought and died in the Colonial War, The Civil War, World War I & II, Vietnam, Desert Storm, September 11th, and those that died in Afghanistan & Iraq to keep this country free and safe from terrorists.

[princessjune.livejournal.com]

I almost forgot, she is also insulting Martin Luther King & other *African American's* who marched and risked their lives during the "African-American civil rights movement" so that people of color could have equal rights and be able to work where they wished to work and prosper in the United States.

If it hadn't been for them, I doubt that she would ever be able to come here and have the job that she has and the rights that she has and I doubt that she'd even survive going out the building if she said she found the American flag offensive if things were still the same way they were back then...

That woman is a filthy hypocrite.

[tsuu.livejournal.com]

While I don't want to go into what should be done to people who oppose this, I do think you're right that they have no business being offended by the hanging of the nation's flag. At the moment, with all the Christian holidays and other national holidays here in Denmark we have flag days nearly every other day and at least once a week. Now the Danish flag has been set on fire many, many times by people disagreeing with our policies and while I think that's wrong, that's certainly their right. But if they come into the country and do that, and tell us to take down our flags etc. we are going to have a problam. I don't understand how you could live in a country and oppose strongly enough against its flag to want to have it taken down so close to a major holiday, which I understand Memorial Day to be.

[olde-fashioned.livejournal.com]

I just don't understand why people who hate their country so much as to be offended by the flag or even burn it, still want to live there. It defies logic.

And yes, Memorial Day is a big holiday during which we honor our veterans for their sacrifices. So that makes it even more insensitive to wax "offended".

[tsuu.livejournal.com]

I agree with you but I all think it stems from an underlying sense of belonging somewhere else. But I hardly think pointing fingers, on either side, is productive.

[iheartweasleys.livejournal.com]

That was disgusting.

If I was her, I would have made a big stink about it and put it right back up. How dare they? That is really upsetting. :(

[olde-fashioned.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I would have made a big stink about it, too.

[angelofmusic189.livejournal.com]

What?!

Since when is showing pride and love for one's own country a crime?!

Good God.

[olde-fashioned.livejournal.com]

My sentiments exactly. :/

[winterlillies.livejournal.com]

Well if it was in her office and I mean her office not one shared by anyone then I don't see the problem. If she's sharing it with someone, etc then yeah I see the problem in terms of the size of the flag.

On the flip side-those that oppose the flag have the freedom to express their feelings.

[olde-fashioned.livejournal.com]

I still don't get what is so "offensive" about the mere size of a flag.

Yeah, what about those who are offended by someone else's offense? ;-P

[madame-faust.livejournal.com]

That's so strange. I can't imagine why the hospital would do that, unless, as some have said, the size of the flag was the real issue at hand and it was blocking....a window or something? But why anyone would be offended by the sight of an American flag in America is beyond me. I do get annoyed when people display the flag improperly, but as for just having one around...no, I can't understand what the problem is.

[olde-fashioned.livejournal.com]

Then why not just tell her to move it, or get a smaller one? I think I smell a rat...

[lilly71.livejournal.com]

That's just... that just doesn't make any sense to me at all! How could anyone be offended by their own flag?!

[olde-fashioned.livejournal.com]

I have no idea. :/

[http://users.livejournal.com/_lovelygirl/]

This just proves to me again that apparently the definition of "freedom of choice" has changed to discrimination of our founding principles. I seems like every time things like this happen its because people somehow think being patriotic of the country we live in is somehow wrong and prejudiced; like revered nationalism or something.

I don't mean to comment randomly, but I just had to answer. And I thought I might say hi! And friend you. I checked your tags and we seem to have lots in common. I hope you don't mind or think it super creepy.

[anodiel.livejournal.com]

I don't get it. We do people from other countries come here knowing full and well that this is America. We have own flag that represents us. If they don't like the flag, they don't like America as far as I'm concerned. Also, I think they have business being here if they don't like the place. They just need go back to where they came from.....or go to France.

I'm Angry

[notwohearts.livejournal.com]

I'm just angry tonight in general and I think, as I try to compose myself, that we should fly that flag, it was memorial day! grrr. What an upsetting situation. I mean have you ever met veterans!?! <3! <3! <3! I would hang a big one on every door entrance like one of those bead divider thingys pass through it to get there. lol I mean I don't hate the lady for it, but that was very unacceptable. I am also upset at how our government officials explicitly Obama and ms. secretary of state are messing with Israeli territory! completely unacceptableeeee! And abortions, don't get me started. The state of things is just a bit frustrating!! I mean these are the reasons I vote republican because gezz brother what's going on with pregnant mothers and Israel, is just too ahhhh! sigh...

I'm not so angry anymore

[notwohearts.livejournal.com]

no to mention a many other things. uhh. I'm a Christian and I love God and there's a growing God hating in American and its very destructive and it just shows that it is true that Jesus was God in the flesh on earth, that He died for our sins, because Israel was prophesied to become a nation again and it happened post WWII. And the rebuilding of the temple in Jerusalem will happen, "Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. 8All these are the beginning of birth pains.
9"Then you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of me. 10At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other, 11and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people. 12Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, 13but he who stands firm to the end will be saved." Matt. 24 Love God and others as yourself. Everyone, remember always that situations may be frustrating, but we should handle them with as much love as possible. That our anger should always be righteous, for the benefit of others. Readers who aren't Christians, that is why Christians don't agree with Abortion and homosexuality because we believe it is destructive to people. That it is a lie to those who practice it, the lie: that it will be good for them or who they are. Look in the mirror God made you a certain way realize that your mental battles are just that battles; Your identity rests in the truth of what God has formed you into and purposed for you. God says do not murder, steal, covet, commit adultry, or fornicate because it leads to death, really, we all know it. He want to give you life and in abundance. The enemy comes only to steal, kill, and destroy, but God has come to give you life. You did not come from nothing, but were wrought by a loving God, who has drawn us all, because He loves with an eternal love and has shown us the way, the truth and the life through His one and only Son, Jesus Christ. "Do not be unbelieving, but believe."

[chief-85.livejournal.com]

I've seen that happen here in Australia a bit too, but it's more people having flags up on their own property, neighbours complaining and then councels demanding they take the flag down. I don't get it. What makes your country's flag so offensive? Shouldn't we be proud of what that flag stands for? :S I think everyone should have the right to show their country's flag and patriotism if they want. Even at work.

[olde-fashioned.livejournal.com]

I agree!