With the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, one need not look very far to see signs of the Ukrainian national flag prominently displayed as a show of support for the plight of the Ukrainian people. I do find it rather odd that many who now proudly display the flag (and I support this) 1. before the conflict had no idea where the country of Ukraine was located let alone what their flag looked like and 2. would not be caught dead having an American flag displayed on their lapel or old glory displayed on their personal property.
This in spite of the fact as we approach Memorial Day next month this nation has had a grand total of 1,354,664+ recorded deaths in all of America�s conflicts ranging from the Revolutionary War to the Global War on Terrorism. To put this in perspective, each one of the fifty stars that adorn our flag represents the death of roughly 27,000 American Soldiers, sailors, Airmen, and Marines that paid for the freedom we enjoy today.
The war in Ukraine should crystallize what is at stake here in our own recent fight over our national identity. For the very things that have united Ukrainians against an external aggressor are what many in our nation seem most eager to dismantle. Perhaps most egregious is the proliferation of a revisionist history of America as a systemically racist, and unjust society that oppresses �persons of color.� We should note that this is the very same theme that the Soviets also sought to push with their propaganda throughout the Cold War in an attempt to promote racial unrest.
The popular but misguided 1619 Project falsely claims that our nation�s true founding can be traced not to the Plymouth Bay Colony in Massachusetts, but to the importation of slaves in Virginia. Although The 1619 Project places this event as the genesis of slavery in the colonial history of the United States, many historians have taken issue with this claim questioning whether those 1619 arrivals actually became slaves. With no slave laws in place, they were treated as indentured servants and given the same opportunities as whites. Other historians have pointed out that slavery in North America existed well prior to 1619, and that Spanish sanctioned slavery in the Americas is documented to have existed as far back a 1494.
The project also outright falsifies American history – its most outlandish claim is that the American Revolution was fought to protect slavery. The American Revolution Institute states that project�s supposition that �one of the primary reasons the colonists decided to declare their independence from Britain was because they wanted to protect the institution of slavery� is simply not true.
Likewise, rapid the proliferation of critical race theory across our education institutions, corporations, and government bureaucracies, teaching that all human interactions must be interpreted through the lens of race and racism in order to reverse historical injustices. Activists from Black Lives Matter and many like-minded progressives aim to undermine the nuclear family and parental rights thus destabilizing our republic.
Many of those now proudly sporting a Ukrainian flag lapel pin called our former President Trump a �Nazi� yet the rationale Putin used to invade Ukraine to was to cleanse Ukraine of Nazis. Go figure.
So, while those who are most eager to proclaim their zeal for Ukrainian �patriotism� I find it most perplexing that they fail to embrace the patriotism of their own native land. There appears to be a sense of guilt and entitlement that causes them to want to tear down their own nation yet come to the defense of a nation they could not even identify on a map six months ago.
