USA Flag is offensive take it down

A student, Brad Smith, was asked by management to take down his American Flag because it could offend foreign exchange students. Yes, you read that right. No he was not hanging an ISIS flag, or a Southern flag or any other kind of flag that MIGHT be offensive, no it was an AMERICAN flag.

Smith said he was given a written notice to take down the flag due to it being offensive to other students however, later on they changed their reasoning to say it was in order to keep the balconies clean and tidy. That NOBODY is allowed to hang flags or banners of any kind off their balconies. Now, if he was asked to take it down due to fire codes or some other emergency reasoning, then it would have made more sense.

“We were told that it was for political reasons and that the flag could offend foreign people that live here…foreign exchange students,” Smith said. “I’ve had friends and family fight to defend that flag.” ~ Source

The lease does say that the apartment has a right to keep the property neat and tidy and that flags/banners and other personal belongings are to be kept within a certain premises. This is one case that is very close of offending the Amendment of the right to free expression.

Thanks to all the media attention of the news and social media sights, Smith was able to hang his flag once again with the apology of the apartment management saying it was a misunderstanding.

Another case of the United States of America's Flag being "Offensive" happened back in 2009 when a woman who worked in a hospital put up a flag for Memorial day. She said her husband, sons and daughter have all fought in the military and she was surprised when a manager of th hospital asked her to take down the flag due to it offending another supervisor. The Supervisor who was 'offended' by the flag had only been in America for 14 years and had originally came from Africa.

Poor Debbie was close to tears and wondered if the men and woman fighting for this country are really fighting for nothing now. I have to agree in thinking the same way, if the flag and freedoms we are fighting for are being blocked now due to foreigners complaining then what is America coming to?

Debbie asked her other higher ranking supervisors in the hospital about this situation and they claimed that some of the families and patients in the hospital had also complained about the flag. The management said it wouldn't have mattered if it was only one person who complained, if their was a complaint the flag would have to be taken down.

Back in 2009, at the beginning of October, a USA Veteran tried to donate an American flag to a local Library. He had noticed when he had held a seminar at this library about his time in the military on a submarine. This seminar drew in vets and other curious people/children to come and learn a little about our American history. It was at this time he noticed that the library had no American flags in or out. He thought it odd and wanted to change it, so he decided to donate a flag to this Library.

When they told him they could not accept it because it might offend some people, he decided then to write a letter to the Marena weekly news.

"The day after that edition was released a representative from the U.S. Representative Gabrielle Giffords office contacted him and wanted to know how they could help. He had already contacted Senators John McCain and Jon Kyle from the Arizona delegation with no luck." ~Source

Giffords offered to send a flag to the library to fly outside once a flagpole was built, and the vet wanted to buy a flag in the meantime, for the library to hang up inside. It was supposed to be hung up in the lobby of the Library but he was told it would go instead, to the activity room. The reason being, if it was in the lobby it could offend people.

The librarian said to him, "Some people just don't feel the same way you do." She told the Vietnam Vet that it was a policy of the Library that they couldn't hang anything that might be considered offensive.

(Read the full story here)

The American Flag stands for our freedom and right to express that freedom, speech and expression. The Amendments protect those rights that our troops fight for so why is this happening? I was glad to have only found 2 such instances of this online but I'm sure many more situations like this have happened that have not been covered by the media.

When the American Flag offends you who have come from another country, then I say TOO BAD! You came to our land, our country and if you don't like our ways or our symbols then you can pack up and go back home or stop complaining about it. Also if we do offend you and our superiors say we have to take down our flag then something is terribly wrong with this country and it needs to be fixed quick because I'm not going to be proud about living in a country that just rolls over and admits defeat on little petty things such as this.

We have a right to hang our red, white and blue colors proudly! And wear them even if we wish to. I don't think it's offensive or wrong to wear the American flag as a shirt or pants, it shows you support our country and want to share and show it out loud.

^{Now I am not hating on other countries, I am simply showing my support for my own. Please do not get the wrong idea here. Thank you.}