I just finished reading a letter to the editor of the Chico Enterprise Record in Chico, California, that I think, sheds some light on the increasing polarization of our society. On Friday, I wrote of a mother and daughter in Chico who have rigged a display of flags in their yard that is causing a little stir. Wendy Oshima has the Cuban, Palestinian and Iraq (under the rule of Saddam Hussein) flags flying along with her daughter’s desecrated American flag.
As a result of the display, the American flag in particular, the Mount Shasta Spring Water Company has decided to cease doing business with Oshima. There would be no story here except for the fact that Oshima felt her "rights" had been violated and she’s making some noise about it. The book on Oshima is that she is politically active and tied in with some very left wing groups that are dedicated to the destruction of the United States and that support some of the nastiest regimes on the face of the earth. Hence, the Cuban flag in support of Castro, the former Iraq flag in support of Saddam Hussein and the Palestinian flag in support of the various terrorist organizations that operate under the umbrella of the PLO.
The Mount Shasta Spring Water Company has stated that they are only taking issue with the desecration of the American flag which, as a private business, is well within their rights. The problem arises, however, when the average Joe reads the whitewashed version the newspaper wishes to present and concludes that the water company has overreacted. After all, the American flag the water company takes issue with was the work of the child, not the mother and as for the mother’s flags, she’s just expressing her appreciation for other cultures.
This is exactly the conclusion that Shala Fredson, a Chico resident, made after reading the story in the paper. The letter she wrote the paper begins like this:
"I read the story about a woman whose water delivery service was stopped because her delivery man found a multicultural flag display in her yard offensive. Among the flags was an American flag her daughter had decorated with a peace sign and some smiley faces."
Fredson apparently doesn’t see the importance of questioning why those three flags in particular were displayed by Oshima – she dismisses them as "a multicultural flag display." And the American flag hasn’t been desecrated – it’s been decorated.
Fredson is fairly representitive of a large chunk of America. She’s so caught up with the "feelings" that she doesn’t see where this might be leading. She sums up the conflict this way:
"So what if Oshima doesn’t feel the same way as Ellis (the owner of Mount Shasta Spring Water)? She doesn’t have to. He doesn’t have to like it either, but he does need to accept it, just like everyone else should be accepting of him."
Oshima isn’t merely "feeling" a certain way. She is actively supporting a set of ideas and consequently, a course of action, that intends to destroy our democratic republic. There is no reason on earth that Mr. Ellis, or any other American for that matter, should "need to accept" the ideas that Oshima is promoting.