A Massachusetts high school has been in the news this week because of controversy surrounding the theme of its upcoming dance. What is this theme that has sparked so much debate?
The “Virginity’s Overrated” Dance?
The “Whites Only” Bash?
The “What’s So Bad About Terrorism” Prom?
Nope. Lexington High School students held a vote to choose “American Pride” as their dance theme, and that was enough to provoke concerns from Assistant Superintendent Carol Pilarski. In an interview with local news station WHDH, she said, “Given the diverse demography of our community, it was suggested by school advisors that the students consider a ‘national pride’ theme so they could represent their individual nationalities.”
That’s right. In Lexington, Massachusetts – the site of the “shot heard ’round the world” that inspired the Revolutionary War – the thought of having American pride is too controversial to pass without debate.
For a time, it appeared as though school officials were going to implement the “national pride” theme, but the backlash was intense enough to make them reconsider.
“It’s a lot of hypersensitivity to being politically correct,” one Lexington student told WHDH.
“People consider America to be a melting pot,” said student Sneha Rao, “so the fact that it was even considered offensive is what people are a little surprised about.”
Lexington Principal Laura Lasa told FoxNews.com that the dance was never officially canceled. “We were in a conversation with the kids about how the theme would be presented so that we could make sure that it was inclusive to all students.” She said that the high school was merely “being mindful of the fact that we want kids to have pride in America, and also the fact we have students from all over the world that move to Lexington.”
But…that’s all the more reason to celebrate an American Pride dance. Some of the most patriotic Americans I’ve ever met are those who have emigrated here from other countries. These immigrants have a perspective on freedom that many natural-born citizens can never fully appreciate. The concept of “American pride” is not an exclusionary one. To the contrary; part of what we celebrate when we talk about that pride is our immigrant heritage.
If we’ve reached the point where we think about patriotism as a dirty, racist concept, then we really have lost our way as a nation. But as we’ve seen at the University of California, there are those who think the flag itself is a symbol of oppression and hate. And liberals have increasingly moved to consider anything that happened in America before, say, 1967 or so to be shameful and despicable.
Every time some jackass runs off his mouth, we are supposed to have a “national dialogue” on whatever liberal idea is being promoted that month. Well, maybe it’s time we had a national dialogue about patriotism. And we’d better have it quick, because if we wait too long, we may find it’s one of those topics we just can’t talk about without offending someone. In fact, if we wait much longer, we may not be allowed to talk about it at all.
