-By Warner Todd Huston
An owner of an apartment complex in Rolling Meadows, Illinois has decided to fly the Mexican national flag side-by-side with the U.S. flag, both on 30-foot flag poles and both at the same height. Apartment owner Mike Sparks says he’s doing it as an advertisement of sorts to entice Mexican immigrant tenants to come live in his apartments.
Local residents, however, are not as enticed by Sparks’ anti-American advertising campaign and say that he should follow flag codes which often state that the U.S. flag should always be higher than a flag of any other nation.
This flag argument comes up a lot. The problem here is that the so-called flag codes are not enforceable by authorities. In essence, they are customs and suggestions, not legal requirements. The simple fact is the U.S. flag codes are not laws and carry no penalty for violation. It may be a case of there-outta-be-a-law, but the fact is there are none.
The fact that the apartment owner didn’t really violate an actual laws, though, does not detract from his un-American attitude. It is patently obvious that Mr. Sparks does not see any reason to revere the U.S. flag enough to bow to tradition and place the foreign flag at a lower staff. And that isn’t the only problem with this situation.
There are several other reasons why this is a statement that we Americans are losing our battle against invasive foreign influence, an influence that is turning our once proud nation into a Balkanized shadow of a once proud American ideal.
The fact that Sparks sees no reason to revere the U.S. flag is one thing, but that his Mexican national customers are defiant enough to see no reason why the flag of their nation shouldn’t be placed in just as respected a position as the U.S. flag shows that they see no reason to become Americans. This insistence that “their” flag fly equally with the U.S. flag shows that they don’t want to be Americans but want to be Mexicans that just happen to live in the U.S.A. No assimilation is necessary with this attitude.
Mr. Sparks shows that there is no loyalty to America for himself or his customers. America is just a place to live. That is all.
Fortunately, some of Mr. Spark’s neighbors do care enough about the U.S. to be incensed that Sparks and his MExican National customers are so dismissive of our great nation. There is no way legally to force Mr. Sparks to care about his country, needless to say. But that he is so flippant shows a break down in our national character, to be sure.
There was once a time when just the fact that so many of his neighbors would be upset at Spark’s off handed treatment of our national banner would be enough for him to think harder about displaying the U.S. flag in such a disrespectful manner. But with this lack of respect for our nation so wide spread, today we are at a time when a business man would be defiant in his anti-Americanism instead of compliant toward American customs.
Mr. Sparks’ recalcitrance and his customer’s defiance is a sad commentary on the state of American patriotism.
(Photo by Mark Welsh, Daily Herald Staff Photographer)
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“The only end of writing is to enable the reader better to enjoy life, or better to endure it.”
–Samuel Johnson
Warner Todd Huston is a Chicago based freelance writer, has been writing opinion editorials and social criticism since early 2001 and is featured on many websites such as Andrew Breitbart’s BigGovernment.com, RightWingNews.com, CanadaFreePress.com, StoptheACLU.com, TheRealityCheck.org, RedState.com, Human Events Magazine, AmericanDailyReview.com, and the New Media Journal, among many, many others. Additionally, he has been a frequent guest on talk-radio programs to discuss his opinion editorials and current events and is currently the co-host of “Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Conservatism” heard on BlogTalkRadio. Warner is also the editor of the Cook County Page for RedCounty.com.
He has also written for several history magazines and appears in the new book “Americans on Politics, Policy and Pop Culture” which can be purchased on amazon.com. He is also the owner and operator of PubliusForum.com. Feel free to contact him with any comments or questions : EMAIL Warner Todd Huston
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