I just lost a friend because he disagreed with my point of view on these five high school students who were booted from school for wearing American flags on "Cinco de Mayo." And it's not that I disagreed with him, really. I said that I thought it was a mistake for the school to boot these five numbskulls for acting like little racist, teabagging idiots. If they want to wear the American flag on a t-shirt (although a TRUE patriot KNOWS that wearing the flag as an article of clothing is inappropriate), unless these little teabaggers were in violation of a school rule, then they should have been left alone.
Of course, the right wing idiot-o-sphere is going nuts over the fact that these good, clean, AMERICAN kids were booted from school while those dirty, filthy, brown-skinned MEXICANS were allowed to STAY and FLAUNT their heritage on a day that is barely even observed in Mexico but is more-or-less used an another excuse to get drunk on an ethnic holiday in America. I mean, how many teabagger kids make a special point of wearing an American flag to flip the metaphorical "finger" to the Irish on St. Patrick's Day?
So, OF COURSE these kids were making a political statement. And OF COURSE the right wing nut-o-sphere is going batshit over this.
I just never realized my friend was so far gone with his right wing craziness that he would let my opinion cost him my friendship. This was not a casual Facebook friend. This was a shipmate... someone I have known for more than a quarter-century... someone I served with in Japan. A former room mate. Someone who, for some reason, decided to stay in Japan when his tour ended. One of the best pals I have ever had. And now, because he misunderstands my point here as saying it's ever wrong for kids to wear the American flag on any day they want to (which proper flag etiquette says IS wrong), he has disavowed my friendship and cut me off from any further communication.
Of course, I've known my friend to be a right wing ideologue since I met him. He was absolutely certain that Bill Clinton was an agent of the Chinese government and that Hillary was a murderer. We was CERTAIN that instead of turning over power in 2001, Clinton would declare martial law and hold on to the presidency. Now, he is CERTAIN that Obama is a Kenyan Manchurian Muslim Candidate who has nothing less than the destruction of FREEDOM on his agenda, and that means we'll all be rounded up and put in the camps.
My friend would make these statements on FB posts, and I would chide him in good nature. But I also remember the friend who I drank sake with at the Yokohama baseball park, who I strolled the streets of Tokyo with. I thought our friendship went beyond ideology.
I guess I was wrong.
But I do have a question...
If he remains such a "Freeper," such a right wing ideologue who believes "America First," and "America Always"... why is he still living in Japan enjoying their more-or-less socialist form of government and the goodies inherent therein?