Thread: Mexican flag hysteria

Mexican flag hysteria

Hughes For America...

With the recent Republican push to turn immigration into this fall's key issue has come the accompanying right-wing bigotry. Since protests began of late, we've heard a steady stream of rhetoric, much of it thinly veiled racism.

The vitriol reached a new low last week, when conservative gasbag Michael Savage called for his listeners to burn the Mexican flag. Doing this, he said, would show everyone how America wasn't going to be pushed around. It would also show Mexico that Americans weren't going to tolerate the "invasion" any longer.

Xenophobic nationalism aside, it's important to note the hypocrisy of those who would burn the Mexican banner. Hypocrisy that, when revealed, shows the true attitudes behind this persecution.

Savage wasn't alone in his opinion. Michelle Malkin, describing a protest in Los Angeles, said, "Mexican flags and signs advocating ethnic separatism and supremacy filled the landscape." Virginia Rep. Virgil Goode, making a blanket statement about protesters, said, "I say if you are here illegally and want to fly the Mexican flag, go to Mexico and wave the American flag." Goode's congressional colleague, Sen. John McCain, warned protesters that we're in "sensitive times" and said "the Hispanic community risks a backlash if it become unruly or too many Hispanic flags - and not enough American flags - are at these protests."

Would those same self-styled patriots feel the same way about denouncing another nation's heritage on, say, St. Patrick's Day? Or during an Italian pride festival? Or whenever American sports teams pay respect to Canadian teams during athletic contests? Is respecting other nations universal, or does it simply stop short of those nations with which the Republican Party has a problem?

Imagine the outrage the Savages of the world would voice had the mouthpieces of a country friendly to America had advocated for the burning of our flag. Further, would those advocating the burning of Mexican flags similarly criticize the Rebel flag? Somehow, I doubt it. It's funny how those who take so much pride in a banner that celebrates racism, slavery and treason are considered good Americans, while those hard-working individuals who take pride in their Mexican heritage are considered the enemy.

But I guess this shouldn't surprise me. We are talking about the same people, after all, who denounced Jill Carroll as a Taliban sympathizer and who've made being of Middle
Eastern descent the modern version of being branded with the scarlet letter.

I see absolutely nothing wrong with people flying the Mexican flag at immigration protests. Nor do I see the hypocrisy others see. Why? For the same reason many fly the American flag outside of their own homes: Pride. These people flying the American flag also don't appreciate it when others disparage their country. But that's exactly what many are doing now when they turn the immigration debate into an opportunity to showcase their hatred of Mexicans.

Those protesting are well within their rights, because their heritage is most definitely under attack from the right. To this end, I'm a bit puzzled that Republicans like Savage would show outrage over this Mexican pride. Didn't the aftermath of September 11 show everyone how much pride Americans took in being American?

After that day's tragic events, many Americans flew the flag as a symbol of defiance against our attackers almost as much as they did to show their pride in the United States. Apparently, however, this pride stops at the Mexican border. We are proud to be American but are also proud of our heritage, which, in nearly every case, isn't North American. Why can't those protesting have the right to be proud of their heritage?

To most of us, this is a political debate. To those protesting, this is personal. This is about race. Their culture's place in the American tapestry is under attack. Their heritage is being derided by critics who fear that soon they might be the minority. They're not the enemies the right would have you believe. They're just people who are coming to this country to pursue the same hopes and dreams our ancestors did. To that end, there's a right way to deal with the problems illegal immigration raises and there's a wrong way. And we're letting the racist fringe of the Republican Party paint the wrong way as the only way.

When we allow the right to frame this debate, what happens is what always happens when we allow Bush conservatism to fester unchecked. Heated rhetoric and racist fear-mongering overshadow the issues. What many of us forget - especially Republicans - is that, with very rare exception, we're all immigrants to America. Just ask the next Native American you see how legal our immigration was.

What did the Republicans expect to happen when they began framing the immigration debate as an invasion of America by Mexico? Did they expect a petition drive, phone banking and a candlelight vigil? Further, what did you expect to happen when the politicians in charge of solving these problems see valid solutions in building a wall along the Mexican border and allowing prisoners to "pick the fruits"?

How did the right not see these protests coming? Have they learned nothing from Hurricane Katrina, when it became painfully obvious the disastrous effects of ignoring entire groups of people? If Katrina lost the Republican Party the African American vote, immigration has lost them the Latino vote.

Besides, is America so at risk that a protester flying a Mexican flag presents a grave threat to our entire way of life? Is our democracy so in peril the presence of a flag other than ours constitutes an act worthy of a hate crime? If so, we have far bigger problems than immigration

http://hughesforamerica.typepad.com/hug ... ag_hy.html

Would those same self-styled patriots feel the same way about denouncing another nation's heritage on, say, St. Patrick's Day? Or during an Italian pride festival? Or whenever American sports teams pay respect to Canadian teams during athletic contests? Is respecting other nations universal, or does it simply stop short of those nations with which the Republican Party has a problem?

The dimwit who wrote this must be totally blind!

The festivals and the heritage days aren't mobs of illegal aliens flashing gang signs and carrying banners along with their flags threatening to overthrow the US government or take half of this nation by force! Those people aren't whining that they are abused or changing our national anthem to a lament over their downtrodden status in OUR country. Those people are part of this country and they always have been. Those people speak our language rather than ask us to speak theirs.

What a Moron.

This person does not know the difference between an invasion and legal immigration.

Originally Posted by swtncgram

Mexican flag hysteria

[SNIP]

Besides, is America so at risk that a protester flying a Mexican flag presents a grave threat to our entire way of life? Is our democracy so in peril the presence of a flag other than ours constitutes an act worthy of a hate crime? If so, we have far bigger problems than immigration

http://hughesforamerica.typepad.com/hug ... ag_hy.html

YES!! America is "so at risk that a protester flying a Mexican flag represets a grave threat to our entire way of life"!! Why?

Workers on tourism ships have made it known that the phrase "after the revolution is over" occurs quite frequently in Mexico when discussing the state of California as well as other border states.

We have terms such as "reconquista" (re-conquest), AMEXICA (America, strike the letter R, add in place the letter X), AZTLAN, racist remarks from Mexicans and Mexicans ONLY compared to other immigrants, delarations of civil war against the United States, threats that their intentions are to take over the United States through brute migration and "love of making children" (for such a purpose), statements made by Mexican extremists declaring that white folk should return to Europe, telling our elderly citizens it is their duty to die and that they take up too much space and too much air...

I can fill an entire spiral notebook with the hatred and openly stated purposes these neighbors from the South have been hurling at us since even back in the 60's.

If a group have gone to great lengths to openly swear their desires to crush an existing nation, then anything the people of the victim nation say or do in an effort to defend themselves does NOT make them racist or inhumane. These people have literally declared war. Their primary method of attack is through peaceful means through long-term migratory pummeling of our borders. And if that doesn't work, they have stated they would turn to chaos and violence. Either way, they have made their intentions known.

So, Re: Mexican Flag burning... any nation which becomes an aggressor has earned anything it receives.

Burning of another nations flag truly does run rampant in our world. In the Middle East, those who seek to voice their displeasure with U.S. international politics burn the U.S. flag all the time! Does this make it right? No. But does it happen? Yes. Will it continue to happen? Yes.

I guess people who have written articles such as the one above didn't hear about recent protestors who disrespected OUR flag by wrapping it around their necks, dragging it on the ground, flying theirs OVER ours here within our own borders, and one demonstrator even got emotional and stomped on a small U.S. flag as he cried out "Viva La Raza!"

If others desire to express their feelings about a group of people who have pledged invasion and violence against us... they will burn Mexican flags whether it is disrespectful to another nationality or not.

Keep these things in mind when publishing something on a forum which defends a nation which has traditionally been filled with a large number of warrior-class mentality people.

(end rant)