Our Flag Honors America’s Best

Andrew Tonkovich’s disparaging essay on the American flag (“Oh, Say, Can You See the Ironies Here?” March 24) was typical of the attitude of many college and university professors who preach anti-Americanism.

Patriotism is the engine of our country’s progress. We became the greatest nation on earth, and the most successful in all history, because we were one people--with pride in our past and a firm belief in freedom and liberty.

Today, we all recognize that slavery was an evil practice, but we can be proud that more than a century ago, half a million Americans gave their lives to abolish it.

We likewise have reason to be proud of Valley Forge, as well as the sacrifices of millions of other Americans who through the years have laid their lives on the line and suffered untold hardships in war because they loved this nation and the principles for which it stands. Our flag is the living symbol of their loyalty and willingness to die for their country.

To disparage the flag, to ridicule it, to complain that the celebration of any one man’s birth date is equally as important as the day our nation was founded, is to dishonor both the nation and the patriots who risked their own lives to give it life.

One holiday marks the birth of a man, who among many others, played a role in furthering the opportunities of one segment of our population. The other honors a cataclysmic event that gave the world a new nation, “conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.”

Without such a nation, and the ideals for which our forefathers fought, there could have been no Martin Luther King Jr.

If all Americans, including Professor Tonkovich and Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf, the black basketball player, honored our flag and all it stands for, there would be a lot less crime, no rampaging gangs and fewer senseless murders. We would have politicians who couldn’t be bought, and college professors who are truly loyal to their country.

STUART WILLIAMS

Newport Beach