Posted on 03/30/2006 11:38:23 PM PST by beaversmom
Tensions over immigration reform heightened in the Phoenix area's East Valley Thursday when students raised a Mexican flag over Apache Junction High School — and then other students yanked it down and burned it. "I know (they) shouldn't have burned the Mexican flag," said Jacob Stewart, a 16-year-old sophomore. "I heard it was raised above the American flag and that just irked me."
He said the turbulence was tied to debates going on in the state Legislature and Congress, where ideas ranging from offering illegal immigrants a chance at citizenship to making them felons are being floated.
Freshman Chelsea Garcia, 15, and junior Brittany Ramage, 16, said the unrest had more to do with long-running racial tensions at the school.
The week's events might have sparked some anger, Ramage said, "but kids aren't too deep about that stuff."
The Hispanic student who brought the Mexican flag said he was responding to a remark directed at him Wednesday. The flag-raising, flag-burning, and shoving match that followed happened before most students arrived at school.
Six students — three Hispanic and three white — will be disciplined, Principal Chad Wilson said.
Officials with the Apache Junction Unified School District would not specify what punishment the six face.
Wilson did say in a letter sent home to parents that there would be "increased supervision, including additional police officers, on the campus over the next couple of days."
School flagpoles have been lightning rods across the country this week, including an incident in which a Houston high-school principal was disciplined after he flew a Mexican flag underneath his campus' U.S. and state flags.
A new political awareness among students has also been grabbing attention, as thousands have walked out on classes to join rallies in Phoenix and elsewhere. More than 100 students from Mesa's Carson Junior High and Westwood High schools marched in protest on Mesa streets Tuesday.
Bump to find later...that is disgusting. At best.
Are you trying to say that Jesus' statements have no meaning because they were quoted by Matthew? Please tell me that I misunderstood you. Or are you trying to say that Mattithias' actions were more significant that Jesus'? I am going to give you the benefit of the doubt that you are not trying to insult Jesus.
Isn't the history of Mexico replete with bloody and violent coups and revolutions?! It seems to come naturally to that part of the hemispere it would seem.
The guys should have driven the point home with a sound beating of these third-world hell hole chavunist jackasses.
You do not need to burn a flag to protect your country. 30,000 more border patrol agents would be a lot more effective than children in schools across America burning flags.
Do you also applaud Palestinians, Pakistanis, etc (whoever is angry with us at the moment) who burn our flag? Or do you look at them as performing an immature act? I do the latter, and that is why I would never burn a Mexican flag nor support anyone who did. I could just as easily fold it up and put it in a drawer out of sight and not look like an animal.
" Are you trying to say that Jesus' statements have no meaning because they were quoted by Matthew? Please tell me that I misunderstood you. Or are you trying to say that Mattithias' actions were more significant that Jesus'? I am going to give you the benefit of the doubt that you are not trying to insult Jesus."
Mattithias and his clan came and restored the temple.
Jesus came and the temple was destroyed, and people scattered to the winds.
If you think that an objective view of history is insulting to Jesus, don't blame me.
"Do you also applaud Palestinians, Pakistanis, etc (whoever is angry with us at the moment) who burn our flag? Or do you look at them as performing an immature act? I do the latter, and that is why I would never burn a Mexican flag nor support anyone who did. I could just as easily fold it up and put it in a drawer out of sight and not look like an animal."
They didn't burn any old flag. They burned the one that was hoisted up the flag pole at a US public school. I think it was a fine way to respond to the symbolic attack representing the real attack - the Mexican colonization of the US.
I'm going to assume that you're rather young.
That said, flying a flag in a country that is not yours, USED TO BE, back when we were still (semi-)sane, was deemed an act of war.
No there isn't.
I always love a little hyperbole in the morning! Neither of those were tit for tat actions. Tit for tat would be if we responded to Pearl Harbor by attacking a single Japanese naval base, responding to terrorists by launching a couple of cruise missiles into Afghanistan, or by burning a Mexican flag in response to it being raised on American soil.
The key point is: if you need to act, then act. But don't respond emotionally. If someone smacks you on the face, don't smack them back. There is a problem, and it can be solved rationally: call the police, get some friends around, and if necessary perform actions to prevent the other person from smacking you (by violence only as a last resort). And then pray for him (yes, it is *required*). If someone raises a Mexican flag by an American school, a rational response would have been: take down the flag, lock it up, and expel the students responsible.
I see you are new to FR. Glad to have your comments. I see that your church which has been promoting an open border with Mexico has convinced you that we should greet them with open arms.
I don't agree with the Catholic bishops. If Mexicans want to come to the US then they need to do it by coming through our border stations and not across the open desert. We are a nation of laws, not lawbreakers.
La Raza is promoting recognition of the Spanish race and they are promoting the massive marches demanding rights that belong to US citizens.
Adult Mexicans are coaching these Mexican children. Kids don't cut class for marches unless they have adult prompting. They don't block freeways without adult prompting. They sure as hell don't pull down the American flag and replace it with the flag of Mexico without adult prompting.
Just because your priests say you should welcome our neighbors to the South doesn't mean we are going to educate, medicate or feed them willingly. Nor are we going to tolerate their national flag being placed above ours on our flag poles.
I think the adult Mexicans who are guiding these marches are trying to get as much for their efforts as possible. They have seen how Americans are now behaving as sheeple and they are making a mistake in my view if they are thinking that we won't defend our nation from foreign invaders.
If they keep pushing, yes then the patriots guns will come out and they will be loaded. People will die. So perhaps you should best be telling your priests to bring this to a halt before they start receiving requests for funeral masses at your local churches.
Keep in mind that this is America and not another state in Mexico where the people behave because they are afraid of their own policemen. The last thing illegal aliens or Mexican nationals want to do is get the American people thinking that it is time for us citizens to defend our homes.
You know not of what you speak. I am willing to defend the American flag by use of force, but I am still not willing to burn a Mexican flag.
And it is only an act of war if the government of Mexico raised the flag. Otherwise I could get Spain to declare war on France with only the cost of airfare and a French flag.
OK. Parse words. I don't care.
You know exactly what I meant....but hey.
That's not what I said, although....now that you bring it up....
No, but we should burn the enemy flag, discipline the children and investigate the guardians of the little insurrectionists.
It most certainly is...But then there have always been passive activists...
Just sit back...We will continue to protect the Country for you...
1. There is no "Spanish Race." Spaniards are part of the white race. Have you ever been to Spain? Mostly fair skinned, with plenty of blondes and redheads in the north.
2. When Mexicans speak of "La Raza," they mean "La Raza Cosmica" aka the mixture of Indian and European that most Mexicans are. Google Jose Vasconcelos and see what I mean.
Please refrain from referring to Mexicans as "Spanish."
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