It is the night of September 13, 1814.  The British fleet are bombarding Fort McHenry in the harbor at Baltimore, Maryland. Francis Scott Key, a 34-year old lawyer-poet, is watching the attack from the deck of a British prisoner-exchange ship. Key had gone seeking the release of a friend. They were told that they had to remain aboard the vessel until the end of the attack. When the battle was over, the following morning, Key had his telescope on the fort and saw the American flag was still waving. The sight of the tattered Stars and Stripes was so moving that he pulled a letter from his pocket and began to write the poem. This poem eventually became the national anthem of the United States – “The Star Spangled Banner.”

Oh, say, can you see, by the dawn’s early light,
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight’s last gleaming?
Whose broad stripes and bright stars, thro’ the perilous fight’
O’er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming.
And the rockets red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there.
Oh, say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

It does, sir. Regardless of a bunch of little snot-nosed, ungrateful college kids.

The Sacramento Bee reports that

The UC Davis student senate has made it optional to display the American flag at its meetings, stirring up controversy on campus and conservative blogs.

Senate Bill 76 passed Thursday, said Michael Gofman, a student senator who opposed the change.

The bill amends bylaws that required the United States flag to be on display at every senate meeting of the Associated Students, University of California, Davis. The revised bylaws give senate members the option to petition for the display of the flag 24 hours before each meeting. The ASUCD senate pro tem ultimately has authority to decide whether the U.S. flag will be displayed, according to the revision.

The resolution says that since “the concept of United States of America and patriotism is different for every individual, it should not be compulsory that the flag is in view at all times during Senate meetings.”

Jose Antonio Meneses, who introduced the resolution, said the changes were meant to ensure the student government is following federal law, which he says doesn’t allow an organization to mandate displaying the flag.

“It wasn’t political in any way,” Meneses said. “But because it is the United States flag … it’s a touchy subject to talk about. We want to make sure we are not sued.”

Gofman disagreed, saying all governing bodies within the U.S. – including a student senate – should display the flag.

“It was a purely political issue from the start,” Gofman said.

The student government decision drew attention from internet blogs, many conservative – including Fox News Insider, the Daily Caller and The Blaze. Some stories say the flag has been “banned,” “banished” or “dropped.”

Meneses said that while he supports freedom of speech, many of the stories are inaccurate.

“It’s not a ban on the flag,” he said.

He cited a 1943 U.S. Supreme Court decision that found West Virginia could not compel students to salute the flag or recite the Pledge of Allegiance.

“The opinion in that case is that you can’t force people to pledge your allegiance, by (the flag) being there; by extension, you are pledging your allegiance to a symbol that you don’t relate to or that you don’t equate yourself with,” he said Monday.

He said the flag has never been on display during his two years on the student senate, and no one asked about it or the bylaw requirement until now.

A Facebook post by Gofman the day before the meeting prompted offers of flag donations from veterans groups and fraternities. Gofman plans to introduce a resolution that would allow any member of the senate to bring and display an American flag at any meeting.

There is not enough patriotism, especially at UC Davis, said Gofman, who describes himself as a first-generation American.

“I have a much closer connection to places outside of America,” he said. “I understand what the alternative looks like. I don’t think members of the senate know what it is like to live in a totalitarian country.”

Gofman said he wasn’t aware there was a resolution making the display of the flag mandatory.

“Once it was brought up, I was shocked and embarrassed about it not being followed,” he said.

The controversy over the resolution has generated a lot of negative email to the student senate.

Gofman said that much of the email is from alumni saying they are upset with the decision and don’t plan to donate to the school again.

In a statement on Facebook, Gofman condemned two of the emails, one he characterized as “racist” and the other as threatening the physical safety of the senators who voted against the bill.

“This is unacceptable behavior,” he said.

Meneses said much of the hate mail is based on incorrect facts.

“When I introduced the bill, I didn’t know it would be controversial,” he said.

Sure, you didn’t, Skippy.

And I am a 22 year old blonde Dallas Cowboy Cheerleader named Buffy.

I remember back in elementary school, every morning we began school by singing “Oh, What a Beautiful Morning” and then, reciting The Pledge of Allegiance. Even remembering that ritual today, I find comfort in it.

In the South, at least in the Mississippi County in which I live, the school day still begins with the recitation of the Pledge, which is led by a group of students, standing around a microphone in the Principal’s Office.

Unfortunately, that is no longer the case in many schools around our blessed land.

Under the Obama Administration, good old-fashioned American Patriotism was not considered Politically Correct.

So, what is the cause of this 180 degree turn from where we were, as a mostly cohesive society, based on love of God and Country, which I remember so fondly from my childhood, to where we are now as a country divided and comprised, to a certain extent,  of individuals, who believe in relative morality, situational ethics, and a malleable Constitution.

Learned individuals have been trying to discern exactly what has caused this Societal and Cultural Decline, and in the process, they have blamed it on everything from poor schools to poverty to malnutrition.

Being a simple man, (Hey, that would make a great title for a rock song. Oh, wait. It was. Never mind.) I believe that because Americans have wanted, for at least 3 generations now, to give their children everything materialistically possible, they have to a great extent, ignored teaching their children both how to discern between right and wrong and how to be grateful for living in the Greatest Country on the Face of the Earth. A country which provides them with endless opportunities and advantages…like college scholarships.

God’s Word tells us that we, as parents, should

Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it. – Proverbs 22:6 (ESV)

What these ungrateful college kids do not understand is the fact that the exceptionalism of America lies not in the Halls of Power in the courage and spirit of the average American. A courage and spirit, which our history proves, has driven American Citizens to build a nation, which is indeed exceptional among all others.

The secret of this country’s exceptionalism is the “Average Joe”, the 9 to 5′er, working himself into the grave to try to provide for his family.

It was this same “Average Joe”, who fired the shot heard around the world and began the War for American Independence, who stormed the beaches of Normandy on D-Day in World War II, who waded through rice paddies in Vietnam, and who swallowed sand in Desert Storm and Desert Shield. The same “Average Joe” who, as a New York City Policeman or Fireman, ran up the stairs of the World Trade Center on 9/11/01, instead of running down them. The same “Average Joe”, who simply wants things to be easier in this life for his children and grandchildren, than he had it.

It is this same “Average Joe”, who takes family and friends in, when they are in the midst of a life-altering tragedy. The same “Average Joe”, who volunteers on a soup line or at a Senior Citizens Home, or, who begins a successful business in his basement.

Liberal Bureaucrats, like Secretary of State John Kerry and his boss, are professional political prevaricators. Men and women, whose ethics and morality change with the direction of the wind, and whose egos override their judgment…every time.

America is a Constitutional Republic. We are not ruled by a faceless all-powerful government. America’s politicians are OUR SERVANTS….not the other way around.

And, as their Boss, we expect them to possess a more complete knowledge of the history of the most exceptional nation on the face of God’s green Earth. We expect them to honor and respect the lives given and the sacrifices made by courageous Americans, who paved the way for this selfish generation, who are disrespecting a flag which brave men and women before them have died for and who are, at the same time, protesting in a desperate attempt to rewrite American History and to overturn the verified results of a Presidential Election in order for the results to be in accordance with the tenets of their Liberal Ideology.

These “Special Snowflakes’ ” blatant hatred of America and our country’s exceptionalism in the long run, will be of little consequence.

America’s place in the world and her Traditional Values are not things so fragile that they can be unalterably changed by a bunch of lightweight ungrateful brats like them.

As author Dinesh D’ Souza wrote…

What does the doctrine of American exceptionalism empower the United States to do? Nothing more than to act better than traditional empires – committed to looting and conquest – have done. So that’s American exceptionalism: an exceptionalism based on noble ideas, ideas that it holds itself to even when it falls short of them.

In conclusion, it is not a bunch of ungrateful college kids who decide America’s place in the world or the values which average Americans hold dear.

It is the fact of American Exceptionalism, seen in the lives of average hard-working Americans, like you and me.

And, that is something that those who embrace the failed political ideology of these
“Special Snowflakes” will never understand.

For what they call “Nationalism”, we call PATRIOTISM.

And what they call a “Symbol of Hate”, we honor and affectionately refer to as “Old Glory”.

Until He Comes,

KJ