http://borderlandsusa.blogspot.com/2005 ... olors.html

Pictures of the incident are available if you click on the link

Military Band Parades Foreign Colors Through U of NM

A uniformed, military-style "Band of War" bearing a foreign flag marched on an American university last Friday, declaring it to be under Mexican occupation.

Sponsored by the University of New Mexico's "El Centro de la Raza," the "Banda de Guerra" raised a Mexican flag atop a campus flagpole before parading into the Student Union Building. There, they began to blare war tunes with and drums and brass in celebration of a foreign national holiday. When these and several other rousing events had concluded, the "Banda de Guerra" formed up and goose-stepped out of the building under orders barked in Spanish.

The puzzling historical irony continued as three youths dressed in Native American constumes came forward to perform a ritual dance to tribal music. Once they had finished, two males and two females advanced into center stage to perform a dangerous "sword-dance." The ladies strutted gaily in brightly colored skirts while the men clanged their blades together and tossed them into the air, both dropping their weapons several times.

Is this what passes for "cultural sensitivity" in American universities today?

Historically speaking, the act of raising a national flag above foreign territory is viewed as a claim upon the sovereignty of that land. One example of this would be the famous raising of Old Glory at Iwo Jima after the island had been conquered by U.S. Forces.

Yet the United States has not been at war with Mexico for over a century and a half.

What message are University of New Mexico officials transmitting by sponsoring such crude displays of jingoistic superiority? Would not students in Mexico City feel righteously insulted if uniformed Americans were to come grandiosely marching into one of their cultural centers beneath the Red, White, and Blue?

Our forefathers bled and died for this land. It is not theirs to gloat over.