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Flashback: Occidental Leftists Were Triggered By 9/11 Memorial, American Flag Is A 'Symbol of Institutionalized Violence'

Okay—so remember when liberals trashed a 9/11 memorial at Occidental College? I forgot to mention a few things from that disgusting incident. The college is investigating the matter, though the students behind the incident seem to have used the Code: Oxy (Coalition for Diversity and Equity) Facebook page to divulge some grade-A progressive drivel, namely that the American flag, which was used to dot the memorial (around 3,000, one for each victim) is a triggering symbol:

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To Whom It May Concern,

We are writing to you regarding the distress many students experienced when walking through the quad on September 10th around 5:00 PM. On a campus that proclaims itself time and again to be diverse, equitable and safe for all of its students, the display of American flags covering the entire Academic Quad disproved that proclamation. When we became aware of the purpose of this display, to memorialize 9/11, we were concerned by the complete disregard for the various peoples affected by this history.

As students of color, this symbol of the American flag is particularly triggering for many different reasons. For us, this flag is a symbol of institutionalized violence (genocide, rape, slavery, colonialism, etc.) against people of color, domestically as well as globally. Additionally, if the goal of the memorial is to commemorate the lives lost during 9/11, the singular nature of the American flag fails to account for the diversity of lives lost on that day.

Historically, the American flag and subsequent American nationalist symbols, have been polarizing and marginalizing to people of color living within the United States. This has been most recently exemplified in Colin Kaepernick's protest of the American national anthem.

When this institution allows thousands of American flags to be placed in the center of campus it speaks volumes to the students that have lived their lives under the oppression of this flag. From Native students whose land was stolen to undocumented students who live in fear of deportation to Black students who see their communities destroyed by state sanctioned murder, this school is saying your fear and trauma do not matter here.

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This isn’t pansy social justice warrior 101. It’s the facts. This attack occurred in America. The overwhelming majority of victims were Americans; hence the American flags at the memorial. Oh, and the perpetrators were Islamic terrorists. This isn’t the time to lament about Wounded Knee or the Tuskegee experiment. And excuse us if that flag was seen when we liberated Europe or tried to keep South Vietnam free from socialism, delivered humanitarian aid when the Indonesian tsunami killed over 200,000 people; and kept South Korea from succumbing to the perniciousness of communism. In fact, that flag spent the better half of the 20th century keeping the world free.

“The American flag fails to account for the diversity of lives lost on that day.”

Americans died that day. It was horrific. And the want to turn that day of remembrance into some hyper left wing diversity exercise where we pick the ethnicities of Americans who were killed, as if we’re choosing our favorite Jelly Bellys from a jar, to construct some nonsensical narrative. We’re all one, kiddies, especially on that day…if you remember.

On September 13, Code: Oxy said they weren’t involved with the desecration of the memorial, two days after the American flag is the symbol of all evil:

Disclaimer: It was not CODE who took these actions, rather a group of students who utilized the CODE Facebook page in order to increase the audience reached. CODE will be releasing a statement on Tuesday about their position, but for now CODE is being used as an anonymous platform in the hope of increasing dialogue and transparency.

To whom it may concern,

On the night of September 10th 2016 a group of students from Occidental College attempted to create a memorial that provided a more encompassing understanding of the horrific effects of 9/11.

[…]

Given the heightened media attention centering the events that have transpired this past weekend, we sense that many students would like to hear the counter narrative below:

In efforts to memorialize the tragedy of 9/11, 2,996 flags were placed on the Oxy academic quad on Saturday the 10th to honor the innocent individuals who died on American soil. Later that same night, those flags were removed by individuals who wished to demonstrate a more holistic approach to honoring not only those who died on American soil on 9/11, but the 1,455,590 innocent Iraqis who died as a result of the U.S’s subsequent invasion and War on Terror.

[…]

Again, the removal of the flags was not intended to dismiss those who passed away that day, but to broaden the scope of whose narrative gets to be told in relationship to tragedy.

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Granted, this is college. It’s a time to be introduced to new ideas, some radical, and some very, very bad. For conservatives, it’s a four-year period of abuse. Some take on the suffocating progressive ethos that has infested our campuses. Others, fearing retribution from their peers (an unfortunate event) go into the bunker. For liberals who run the table in a college’s sociopolitical scene, it’s a time to whine and expound on imaginary things that trigger people, creating safe spaces for those afflicted by those special imaginary things—and blame conservatives for it. Oh, and when conservatives do offer a contrary opinion, it’s racism, sexism, misogyny, homophobic, xenophobic, and any other “ism” that you can think of because liberals feel they have some moral superiority over others because their feelings tell them so.

There is nothing wrong with criticizing the war in Iraq. There is plenty there, but not on 9/11, kids. No one cares about your views on diversity; no one cares about the ramification of the war on terror; no one bloody cares. It’s about remembering the day we were attacked, the day we prayed for our citizens who were murdered, and the day we came together as one nation. In the aftermath, we honored the dead, the lives they led, and the heroes who stopped more bloodshed - like everyone who was on Flight 93.

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Knowing that day, our history, our values, our culture, all I can say, as a person of color, is U-S-A! U-S-A! U-S-A! It’s a day to remember a horrific tragedy. Get with the program, kids. You don’t see people asking whether the atomic bombings were necessary (they were!), or why they were dropped on Japanese people instead of Germans, for every anniversary of Pearl Harbor . 

Oh, and to the school's Republican club–bravo for replacing the flags. 

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