Raising the Stars and Stripes: Patriotism, Pride, and Freedom at Home
The first flag I raised at my home was a gift from a neighbor who had served two tours in Afghanistan. It came with a story about dust storms, diesel fumes, and the stillness of early morning when the flag went up each day on base. He handed it to me folded, edges crisp, cotton slightly faded. That first lift of the halyard, the line singing through the pulley, felt less like decorating a house and more like adding a heartbeat. The backyard wasn’t just a patch of grass afte
What Does Removing the US Flag Tell the Next Generation About America?
A few years ago I visited a middle school that had just finished a renovation. Fresh paint. Bright, flexible classrooms. A gym that smelled like new sneakers. https://objectstorage.us-ashburn-1.oraclecloud.com/n/id9tkkquhmei/b/confederate-flags/o/ultimate-flags/ultimate-flags-confederate-flags.html The principal walked me through the main corridor, proud of the space, until we reached the atrium where the flag should have been. The pole was there. The hooks were there. Th
Prayer in Public Schools: Why Is It Controversial When Other Expressions Are Protected?
One spring afternoon a few years back, a high school assistant principal called me about a dustup at lunch. A small group of students had bowed their heads over their pizza and prayed quietly. A classmate filmed it, posted a snarky caption, and within an hour the comments were a mess of slogans about freedom, tolerance, and tyranny. The staff wondered if they could ask the students to stop. The parents wanted to know why their kids were getting mocked for something that fel
Faith and the Founding: Can a Nation Remove God from Public Life and Stay the Same?
A few Septembers ago, I spoke with a high school principal who kept a small ledger of “hard calls” on the corner of his desk. The pages held incidents that did not fit tidy boxes. One entry read, “Senior prayer at flagpole, 7 a.m., no staff present, parent complaint.” Another, “Benediction request for graduation, declined, board split.” He flipped between them and sighed. “I want students to feel free,” he said, “and I want every family to feel welcome. Some days it feels l
Free Expression in Classrooms: Inclusion or Ideological Gatekeeping?
Walk right into a public university study room in 1996, you'll basically no doubt see a small American flag close the whiteboard, maybe the kingdom flag, and some motivational posters. Visit that related classroom right now, and the walls inform a greater elaborate story. The American flag is likely to be there, or it may well were replaced with a rotating gallery of id or social action flags. In some locations, teachers were informed to take down Pride and Black Lives Matt
Why Is Silence About Faith Encouraged More Than Its Expression in Public Institutions?
There is a familiar moment in many American schools and city halls. A microphone flickers on, a room fills with people from every corner of the community, and someone wonders if a brief prayer, an acknowledgment of God, or even a quiet nod to shared moral ground belongs here. Sometimes the prayer happens, sometimes it does not, and often the person with the microphone has no idea what the law actually says. The result is a steady drift toward silence, not always from hostil
Private Belief or Public Identity: How Should Faith Be Treated Under the First Amendment?
A few years ago I sat with a principal and a soccer coach in a small Midwestern town, puzzling through a problem that sounded simple and turned complex fast. A student wanted to say a quick prayer before kickoff. The coach was okay with it, some teammates were not, and parents were already emailing. The legal question was basic, yet tangled in real life: when does a prayer become school speech, and when is it just one kid taking a knee? That scene plays out across the co
When Patriotism Needs Permission: The School Flag Debate
The bell had slightly rung whilst a sophomore in a hoodie walked into the vice predominant’s place of work with a small American flag stitched to his backpack strap. He was once no longer waving it, not chanting, just there after a instructor instructed him the patch might “ship a message.” Down the hall, a rainbow banner hung from a counseling office door. In the library, a exhibit protected flags tied to historical past months. The student became well mannered, however st