Tag Archives: Richard Thompson

Gadsden flag, called Tea Party symbol, removed from New York military armory

A group of New York veterans is preparing to march into court after a town ordered the Gadsden flag removed from a military armory.

The city of New Rochelle, N.Y., has removed the Gadsden “Don’t Tread on Me” flag from the New Rochelle Armory after the city council refused to let a veterans organization display the flag, World Net Daily reported.

The United Veterans Memorial and Patriotic Association of New Rochelle is fighting the decision, ordered by City Manager Chuck Strome after complaints that the flag is a symbol of the Tea Party movement, according to World Net Daily.

But Strome did an about-face after Peter Parente, president of United Veterans Memorial, sent Strome the history of the Gadsden flag, which is flown beneath the U.S. flag on many military sites, according to World Net Daily.

Then the New Rochelle City Council overruled Strome, voting 5-2 to have the flag removed.

According to the Washington Examiner, the council objected to the flag because they said Parente is a member of the Tea Party and wants to display the flag to push a political agenda.

Parente said no one in the veterans group is a Tea Party member. “I’m a proud Republican,” he told the council, according to the Examiner.

Now, the veterans have found an ally in the Thomas More Law Center and are ready to go to court.

“Their outrageous decision to confiscate a cherished symbol of our War for Independence smacks of pure partisan politics,” Richard Thompson, chief counsel of the Thomas More Law Center, told World Net Daily.

“Many Americans fought and died for our independence under that flag, and the law center will take available means to return the Gadsden flag back on the veterans’ flag pole. As one Revolutionary War hero said, we ‘have just begun to fight,'” he added.

According to the U.S. Navy website, beginning Sept. 11, 2002, all U.S. Navy ships have flown the First Navy Jack flag. The flag, first used by the Continental Navy in 1775, consists of a rattlesnake superimposed across 13 alternating red and white stripes with the motto, “Don’t Tread On Me.”

According to the site, Commodore Esek Hopkins used the First Navy Jack as a signal to engage the British in the American Revolution. The Jack in today’s fleet represents a historic reminder of the nation’s origin.

Click for more from World Net Daily.

From: http://feeds.foxnews.com/~r/foxnews/national/~3/obLJv8Y_Ngc/

Town Bars Veterans Group From Flying Gadsen Flag

By B. Christopher Agee

Dont Tread on Me1 Town bars veterans group from flying Gadsen flag

The Gadsen flag, its yellow background highlighting the uniquely American phrase “Don’t Tread on Me,” is under a direct attack by the city council in one New York community.

Effectively displayed by many in the Tea Party movement, who use its message as a rallying cry, New Rochelle council members recently voted to ban a local veterans organization from displaying the flag.

Reports indicate that the city manager initially wanted to let the group fly the flag after one council member expressed his displeasure with the display. Ultimately, in a 5 to 2 vote, the council decided to force its removal anyway.

Responding to allegations he wants to use the flag to support his own involvement with the Tea Party, the group’s president stated that no one in the organization is a Tea Party member, though he described himself as a “proud Republican.”

Not satisfied with merely stripping a group’s freedom to display a flag at an armory, council members reportedly hurled insults comparing the flag to graffiti and even the Nazi flag.

The fallacy of thought expressed by this city’s leaders is not lost on Thomas More Law Center president Richard Thompson.

His firm has been retained to present the veterans group’s case, and he expertly skewered the illogical decision.

“Using the city council’s reasoning, they would remove the Stars and Stripes from flagpoles because both Democrat and Republican parties, as well as most political candidates, use the Stars and Stripes in their campaign messaging,” he said.

This outrageous decision is indicative of a much larger problem that has long stymied those on the right.

Any paraphernalia connected to a conservative individual or group is so roundly and rapidly demonized by the knee-jerk liberal crowd; the mere invocation of an otherwise worthy phrase is seen as somehow hateful and unacceptable.

Conservatives, by nature and necessity, are notoriously independent, which means the left has a stark advantage in initiating such attacks.

So-called progressives describe themselves as tolerant, though they have expertly bastardized the word to mean something altogether different.

In reality, conservatives tolerate – if not endorse – opposing ideas and behavior far more than leftists. Vindictive rulings such as the one made in this case prove how intolerant the lunatic left can be.
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Photo Credit: marsmet 541 (Creative Commons)

From: http://www.westernjournalism.com/town-bars-veterans-group-from-flying-gadsen-flag/

Texas School Forces Students To Recite Mexican Pledge

By B. Christopher Agee

Mexico SC Texas school forces students to recite Mexican pledge

One student in a Texas high school is taking legal action after she said she was reprimanded for not participating in a class recitation of the Mexican pledge of allegiance and national anthem.

Fifteen-year-old Brenda Brindson’s suit, filed by the Thomas More Law Center, contends that administrators violated her constitutional rights by forcing her to salute a foreign nation’s flag.

While the same school district has a written policy against coercing students to recite either the American pledge of allegiance or the U.S. Declaration of Independence, somehow verbally expressing loyalty to another nation is compulsory.

Richard Thompson, president of the TMLC, said this incident is indicative of “a sad trend in public schools across our nation to undermine American patriotism,” though he said he finds it “encouraging to see students like Brenda stand up for America despite pressure from school officials.”

Such pressure reportedly included Brindson’s teacher issuing her a failing grade on the assignment and forcing her to listen to a wave of schoolmates pledge allegiance to Mexico.

According to her lawsuit, Brindson even tried to compromise with her teacher, requesting to instead salute the American flag and recite its pledge in Spanish.

The student, fluent in Spanish and the daughter of a Mexican immigrant, is a proud American and contends that pledging loyalty to any other nation is unacceptable.

She gets no argument from me.
Click here to get B. Christopher Agee’s latest book for less than $5! Like his Facebook page for engaging, relevant conservative content daily.

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Source: FULL ARTICLE at Western Journalism