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Commentary: Proposed law would protect flags on college campuses

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The recent vote by a student council at UC Irvine to ban the display of the American flag is truly a moment made for social media: baffling at first, difficult to fathom, easy to tweet.

In today’s media landscape, news travels fast, scandal even faster, but neither can rival reader attention for sheer speed. Almost as quickly as it arrives, the public audience moves on to the next story, another subject and an additional concern. We live in rapid times.

That’s why it is important to make certain that the UC Irvine scandal does not quickly fade from view, like a spectacular fireworks show that dissipates into smoke.

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Some background: Earlier this month, the UCI students’ legislative council passed a resolution banning the display of all flags, citing efforts to be inclusive and potential negative interpretations of Old Glory.

The student resolution said, “The American flag has been flown in instances of colonialism and imperialism. Flags not only serve as symbols of patriotism or weapons for nationalism, but also construct cultural mythologies and narratives that in turn charge nationalistic sentiments.”

Could even the Onion have penned a more satirical-sounding parody of the pretentious language of the modern campus?

Quickly, an executive cabinet of students rejected the ban, and UCI’s administration described the move as “misguided,” which it surely was. But this shouldn’t put the matter to rest, because this seemingly single incident masks a much more common on-campus sentiment and a much larger problem throughout American higher education. There was no happy ending here.

To be sure, every college campus must remain a place where important questions get asked, larger considerations reexamined and unconventional opinions fully heard. But it should also strive for a consistent social standard and some degree of community consensus.

Consider the recent uproar at the University of Oklahoma. The Sigma Alpha Epsilon (SAE) fraternity may have the free-speech right to make its outrageous racist video. But OU’s leadership decided it had both the right and the obligation to pronounce it unacceptable conduct and shut the house down.

Many of us who call Orange County home are deeply disappointed with not only the student council resolution, but also the passive way UCI’s leadership dealt with a critical challenge to what should be a part of the university’s mission: advancing the best principles of our free society.

That is why my Republican colleagues in the state Legislature have introduced a constitutional amendment to prohibit state-funded colleges and universities from banning the American flag on school property. Only days ago, none of us would have thought this measure necessary. In the aftermath of what happened at UC Irvine, it’s absolutely essential.

To an Army veteran like me, our nation’s flag carries with it an almost spiritual bond that is deeply felt and sometimes difficult to fully describe. Reverence for the flag was unconditionally instilled into us. It stood for sacred honor and higher purpose — and you’d risk your life to uphold it.

How alien a concept this must seem at so many of our universities where the search for knowledge and the pursuit of intellectual discovery has inspired something very different in legions of students. The fact is that too many colleges no longer see it as their purpose — let alone their preference — to advance American patriotism.

I am deeply concerned that at many schools in the UC system, the core concepts of duty, honor, country and, yes, the American flag, are approached as one more convention to deconstruct, one more antiquated custom to challenge, one more patriarchy to push over.

UC Irvine and the entire University of California system should recognize this teachable moment and reestablish a school standard that shines bright what is best about American freedoms, California’s spirit and the truth about right and wrong.

I’ll even suggest a slogan they can use — and it’s the same one found on the crest of every UC school: Let there be light.

Assemblyman BILL BROUGH (R-Dana Point) represents the 73rd District.

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