SITTING DOWN FOR AMERICA: MEXICAN NATIONALISM IN ELGIN, ILLINOIS
By Robert Klein Engler (12/06/05)
CHICAGO (Dec. 8, '05)--The recent death of Rosa Parks reminds us all that sometimes instead of standing up for what we believe, we have to sit down for it. Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a segregated bus and motivated the civil rights movement in the U. S. more than 50 years ago. Recently, in Elgin, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago, a young American refused to stand up, too. He refused to stand up for the Mexican national anthem and the Mexican flag.
According to an article in the Daily Herald by staff writer Emily Kroneand Tara Malone, "Larkin High School senior Derek Bedard was reprimanded when he declined to stand for the Mexican national anthem during a special assembly. The 17-year-old son of Robert Bedard...made the choice to stay seated during a ceremony honoring Mexican Independence Day at Larkin High School last month."
WorldNetDaily.com reports that Derek Bedard stayed seated during the playing of the Mexican national anthem at a campus ceremony because he feared if he stood he might jeopardize his upcoming enlistment in the U. S. military. Because of this refusal to stand, he was reprimanded and sent to the school office.
The boy's father, Robert Bedard, a lieutenant with the Elgin Fire Department, questioned how far cultural sensitivity has gone in his local school. "I am concerned that the Mexican Americans have unfairly monopolized the teaching of cultural awareness at this school," Mr. Bedard said. "At least that's the perspective of a parent. I'd love to be corrected."
In a statement to the Elgin Courier News, Robert Bedard further discussed the incident. He said, "Some of the students, my son included, were compelled to attend this assembly. The Mexican national anthem was printed on fliers and handed out to the attending students. The Mexican flag was marched in and placed on a podium by itself. The attendees were then asked to stand and sing the Mexican national anthem."
Robert Bedard continues, "My son explained to the angry teacher who confronted him that he did not see a U. S. flag on the podium and he did not believe they were going to sing our national anthem. This teacher stated, 'They have to stand for our national anthem, so you have to stand for theirs.' My son stated in response, 'Yeah, but they're in our country.' The teacher called my son a punk and sent him to the office."
In spite of young Bedard's protest, school board President Ken Kaczynski defended the celebration of different cultures. "If we were teaching one culture's history over another, then we have an issue. But I don't think that's the case," Kaczynski said.
You have to wonder just what is being taught about Mexican culture, the Mexican national anthem and the Mexican flag at Larkin High School. When we teach multiculturalism, we ought to get our cultural facts straight. Do they discuss, for example, at that high school the similarities between the Aztecs of Mexico and the Nazis of Germany? After all, it is Aztec symbols that are on the Mexican flag. Perhaps Derek Bedard had good reason not to stand up to honor a flag that represents a culture as cruel as the culture of Nazism.
Before the arrival of the Spaniards, the Aztecs built an empire in central Mexico by using oppressive military power. They ruled with cruelty and gruesome myths, and they practiced human sacrifice. It is estimated that the population of central Mexico at the time of the Spanish conquest was about 25 million, with 250,000 sacrificed yearly. The population of the Aztec city of Tenochtitlan was about 300,000, with 15,000 sacrificed annually there. That's an average of about 40 people a day, or about 2 an hour. The anthropologist Marvin Harris maintains that the Aztec empire was the world's only state sponsored cannibal kingdom.
The eagle and serpent on the Mexican flag are symbols representing the Aztecs and their founding myth. They are reminders of a bloody past and not neutral symbols like the Canadian maple leaf. It's hard to imagine how any loyal American would stand up and respect the gory history this emblem represents.
For educators, eager to remove symbols of violence from our schools, removing the Mexican flag is a good place to start. This is a flag that refers to an aggressive, violent and exceedingly cruel culture. Simply saying all this happened in the past does not excuse its present display. When a man is spread-eagle on a stone altar with a bloody-haired priest raising an obsidian knife above him, ready to cut out his still beating heart, I am sure his thoughts do not turn to the future educational value of multiculturalism.
Derek Bedard may have instinctively felt something was amiss when the Mexican national anthem was played and the Mexican flag raised. You have to respect his refusal. It is respect for American values that made him sit down. Let's hope Larkin High School soon starts to tell the truth about Aztec culture and starts to respect the values of its American students.
(Printer friendly version) Email: Robert Klein Engler
