Showing your patriotism at work might not sit right with upper management. Debbie McClucas had a rude awakening to this fact when she put up an American flag in her the office she shared with three other supervisors right before Memorial Day weekend.
When she came back to work after a three day weekend, she was told that some other employees, including a fellow supervisor (who had been in the U.S. for 14 years) found the flag to be offensive. The flag was then removed. Management at Kindred Hospital in Mansfield, Texas where Mrs. McLucas works claimed that there had been several complaints about the flag. When Mrs McLucas came to her office to put away the flag, she found it rolled around its accompanying pole and lying on the floor in what appeared to be a pointed act of desecration. Mrs. McLucas, whose husband, son and daughter have all served in the US military was stunned that the freedom of expression which her entire immediate family had defended in the armed forces was being denied to her. CBS 11 in Texas reported as follows concerning this disturbing incident.
"The flag and the pole had been placed on the floor," McLucas said. But McLucas also said hospital higher-ups had told her some patients' families and visitors had also complained.
"I was told it wouldn't matter if it was only one person," she said. "It would have to come down."
McLucas said hospital bosses told her as far as patriotism was concerned, the flag flying outside the hospital building would have to suffice.
"I find it very frightening because if I can't display my flag," McLucas asked, "what other freedoms will I lose before all is said and done?"
Kindred Healthcare's corporate headquarters are located in Kentucky. We called them for comment when we were first working on this story Tuesday, but they did not return our calls."
There are countries where one must be of the majority nationality to enjoy citizenship or civic equality. There are other countries where one is subject to the rule of a hereditary monarch. America has seen the expansion of civic equality to include all races and women as well as men. The government is bound to hold all citizens to one legal code. However we may fall from this high standard, it remains the standard by which we judge ourselves. Our constitution and our laws are the glue that holds our country together. Anyone who becomes a citizen can claim our collective history as their own.
The flag symbolises this system of laws and the history of its evolution to the present day. Once you knock our constitution and our history out of the picture, you have a recipe for either total chaos or a police state. compared to a lot of countries, we handle our racial, religious and ethnic diversity very well. Those who finds this inclusive, democratic charter of opportunity for the individual to be offensive should ask themselves if they really belong here. Anyone who immigrated, took citizenship and finds the flag and the system that it represents to be offensive probably swore falsely when they promised to uphold the constitution and obey our country's laws.
What other nation apologises for flying its own flag on its own soil? The right to criticise our government is a central characteristic of our way of life. But the self abasement that is inherent in taking down the flag prior to Memorial Day is simply revolting. Immigrants who come and voice objections to display of our flag are showing unspeakable arrogance.
Debbie McClucas has every right to be proud of her family members who have served in our nation's armed forces. The polite thing to for her supervisors and coworkers would have been to thank her for the contributions of her family to the defense of our nation's freedoms. Instead, she was reprimanded. Instead of warm thanks, her flag was desecrated. Management at Kindred Hospital in Mansfield Texas owes Mrs. McLucas and our country a heartfelt apology to the insults she suffered when she displayed our flag. We have fallen very low in accepting such insults to our national heritage. Debbie McLucas has reminded us well not to suffer such insults in silence.
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