High-school Students Apologize for Patriotism
Article audio sponsored by The John Birch Society

Students at Valley High School in Iowa donned patriotic and U.S.A.-themed gear to attend a basketball game against Des Moines North High School on March 8, which is customary for the Valley High School students. Sadly, fans at North High School perceived the actions of the visiting students as offensive.

Local news outlet KCCl reports that fans of Des Moines North High School protested that the students’ patriotic-themed gear was offensive to the refugee families at the school and that the students need to recognize that North High School is a “more diverse” facility.

Unfortunately, the absurdity of this was lost on Valley High School students, who responded by kowtowing to the demands of the protesters. They delivered a note of apology to the principal at North High School:

It has been brought to our attention that the decision by the Valley High School student section to wear U.S.A. apparel at our game last night was offensive to members of your community and fan base. We are deeply sorry if we have offended anyone in any way. We have traditionally dressed in such a fashion for great games such as the one last night. Everyone here at Valley has immense respect not only for your team and players but for your community as a whole. Please know that our intent was in no way to offend or demean — just to support our own team in a way we have done before.

American students apologizing for displays of patriotism in front of students who allegedly came to the United States presumably in search of a better life — what’s wrong with this picture? If the sight of U.S.A.-themed displays is offensive to refugees, why did they come here in the first place?

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The Daily Wire observes, “It used to be that the thought of offering apologies for being patriotic about the United States would have seemed the most awful ingratitude for living in our blessed country.”

In a similar vein, the mainstream media is up in arms over a comment made by Republican Representative Steve King of Iowa on his Twitter account Saturday in which he contends that immigration without assimilation will inhibit America’s restoration. And while the media has chosen to interpret his tweet as racist, King has since clarified that his remark did not pertain to the racial makeup of the United States, but the cultural one. One need not look past the above-mentioned incident out of Des Moines North High School in King’s own state to understand exactly what he means.

Times are changing, and it seems this is exactly what King was addressing in his controversial tweet in support of Dutch politician Geert Wilders, who has also raised concerns over the impact of immigration without assimilation on Western civilization: “Wilders understands that culture and demographics are our destiny. We can’t restore our civilization with somebody else’s babies.”

This sparked nearly immediate backlash from liberals and even GOP colleagues, who perceived his tweet as a statement against non-whites.

During an appearance on CNN, King clarified his tweet by explaining that he was concerned that Americans were pursuing abortions and that the country has been trying to fill the void with illegal immigrants, who are not interested in assimilating to American culture.  

“There’s been this effort we’re going to have to replace that void with somebody else’s babies,” King said. “That’s the push to bring in much illegal immigration into America, living in enclaves, refusing to assimilate into the American culture and civilization.”

Though King did note that some immigrants have embraced Americanism, those immigrants are sadly becoming the exception. “Many are two and three generations living in enclaves that are pushing back in resistance against assimilation,” he said.   

King’s observation is one that has been noted by The John Birch Society for decades. The influx of illegal aliens, as well as legal immigrants who refuse to assimilate to the American way of life, is endangering American culture. Only when immigrants learn the “founding principles of freedom, the proper framework of government and the English language” can the American culture be preserved, the JBS notes.

But the PC movement has fought vehemently against preserving the American “melting pot,” claiming that the mere “melting pot” term is a “microaggression.” Instead, the United States has morphed into a tossed salad, with separate and distinguishable parts.

It is for this reason that students at a California high school were sent home for daring to wear patriotic t-shirts to a school comprised of a large number of Mexicans on Cinco de Mayo.

It’s why the Cedar Riverside section of Minneapolis is a “known hotbed of Islamic terror recruitment,” according to WND.com after it was inundated by a high concentration of Somali refugees who want to see Sharia law in the U.S. and punishment for Americans who “blaspheme” Mohammed.

In fact, when one of the refugees was interviewed by WND, he proudly admitted to having no interest in assimilation: “I’m not Americanized. I just speak fluent [English] and I’m articulate, and can articulate what I’m trying to say. That’s about it. But as far as that my culture, and my preferences and everything, it’s still Somali.”

Unfortunately, those on the Left are very happy to see the disappearance of the American culture. After all, proponents of big government stand to benefit from diversity and multiculturalism over assimilation.

Mark Krikorian, head of the Center for Immigration Studies, explains, “The weakening of a strong sense of the common American identity goes hand-in-hand with the growth of strong identity politics and grievance culture, where people are divided into various [competing genetic] groups … that requires the state to take a bigger and bigger role in life because groups have to be measured and represented.”

“Without a strong sense of unifying patriotism that relegates those [racial, ethnic, national, genetic] differences to a secondary status, you end up with ‘Leviathan’ — a big government to manage and negotiate the differences between those groups,” he adds.

Sadly, Americans like the students at Valley High School who accept immigration without assimilation are playing right into this agenda.