UC Irvine’s American Flag Debacle Continues, GOP Lawmaker Proposes Amendment


What started as a resolution to remove the American flag — and all other flags — from the lobby of the UC Irvine student council has snowballed into calls from GOP lawmakers to amend California’s constitution, so that no college will ever ban Old Glory.

Janet Nguyen, a state representative from Garden Grove, proposed an amendment to California’s state constitution, which would block all public funding for institutions that ban the American flag. It’s still early, and it’s not clear if Nguyen has the votes or the specifics of her amendment yet, but she issued a statement with her proposal.

“As an immigrant who came to the United States in search of freedom and democracy, I could not stand before you today as a state senator if it weren’t for the ideals of that American flag and what it represents.”

According to ABC News, the amendment is a reaction to UC Irvine’s student government, which recently voted to remove all flags from the common area of the student government offices.

As previously reported by the Inquisitr, the Associated Students of the University of California, Irvine (ASUCI) voted six to four for the resolution. It was vehemently anti-flag, calling them weapons of nationalism, but it saved the most incendiary lines for the American flag, in one instance saying “the American flag has been flown in instances of colonialism and imperialism.”

The resolution was a reaction to an anonymous note.

According to the Washington Post, someone took the flag down and left it on the desk of ASUCI president Reza Zomorrodian with a letter that said it shouldn’t be flying in the student government lobby.

The backlash against the resolution was immediate and severe from conservative media outlets, including Fox News writer Todd Starnes.

“If you have a problem with the flag and what that flag stands for and the brave men and women who died for that flag – then you are more than welcome to pack your bags and haul your ungrateful buttocks across the border.”

The ASUCI president, along with three out of four of the other executive cabinet members, vetoed the bill. Starnes gave the president credit for standing strong with the American symbol.

Chancellor Howard Gillman issued a statement as well, saying the original resolution was “outrageous and indefensible that they would question the appropriateness of displaying the American flag on this great campus.”

For most student government stories, that would be the end, but not for this American flag story. Now it’s a fight for the state legislators.

[Image Credit: Jnn13/Wikimedia Commons]

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