April 17, 2008
Daily Lobo
Respect your own country by respecting other flags
Editor,
What makes every so-called loyal American think that other countries do not revere the flag to the same dying degree that we do in the U.S.?
Other countries, Mexico in particular, fought hard, losing many heroic men and women for the right to fly their flag democratically and honorably.
How does this differ from our history? How dare you, Peter Lynch, and all you pseudo-loyal Americans, assume that other flags do not deserve the same respect and reverence.
Lynch's act was disrespectful, malicious and outright racist. Yes, it is protocol that other flags be accompanied by the U.S. flag.
Lynch did not have the right to bring down another country's flag and then proceed to tear it up. To tear it up is a hateful act filled with racist rancor.
All he had to do was contact the authorities, raise his objections and wait for them to properly and honorably remove the flag. Tearing up a flag is nothing less than bigotry in its most blatant form.
In the U.S., there are policies, procedures, formal protocols, laws and regulations set up by our founding fathers and subsequently upheld by our lawmakers. This does not give an individual the right to act maliciously and take the law into his or her own hands.
What Lynch received by the court is a minimal penalty compared to his disgraceful act filled with malice and hatred and disrespect for his own country's rules of protocol.
I am the daughter of a World War II, Korean War and Vietnam War veteran and hero. We traveled the world with my father. I was taught to respect not only our flag but that of every country.
To respect our flag is to respect the flags of other countries. I know what allegiance and loyalty to our flag and country is as I was taught by a true American, a believer in democracy and one who proved it, not once, but three times in the service of his country.
He fought to protect this allegiance and to protect other countries that desired the same opportunity at democracy. My father is Native American and my mother is of Mexican and Spanish ancestry.
How dare you, Lynch, and all of you who have written in support of Lynch devalue what my father and countless others fought for?.
Grow up, educate yourselves and practice what the true values, true protocols and true beliefs of our country really are, and dare to defend them as my father did.
Then, and only then, do you have the right to declare yourself a loyal patriot.
True patriotism is heroic and earned, not garnered through hateful and malicious acts. This is nothing less than cowardice in its worst form.
Patricia Roybal
Daily Lobo reader