The Power Of Patriotism

Just when it looks like America is on the verge of succumbing to the forces of darkness and the furies of evil, someone steps up to remind us what it means to be an American. Even amidst the pro-Hamas demonstrations that have been roiling college campuses across the nation where the children of our corrupt elite chant anti-American and antisemitic slogans and wave banners celebrating murderers, there are patriots, even heroes.

This week, members of a University of North Carolina fraternity stepped into history when they stood up to protect the American flag. As protests raged at one of the nation’s oldest and famed public research universities, UNC-Chapel Hill, pro-terrorist demonstrators took down Old Glory and hoisted in its place the Palestinian flag, a pennant symbolizing to the world over murder, resentment, grievance, and hatred. The police eventually restored the American flag to its rightful place. But the terror sympathizers tried to pull it down again for the purpose of destroying it, and that’s when the men from Pi Kappa Phi stepped into the breach.

If you haven’t seen the pictures or videos yet, you’re missing some of the most emblematic and rousing images of the current moment — a dozen or so all-American-looking young men, maybe a few of them still boys, dressed in jeans and polo shirts, holding the flag. They’re smiling, happy warriors, proud to be there at that moment with that responsibility.

These images join the anthology of other great pictures of Americans and the flag they revere — like the iconic snapshot of Donald Trump embracing Old Glory and the photo of U.S. hockey goalie Jim Craig draping the star-spangled banner over his shoulders to celebrate the 1980 “Miracle on Ice.” And they’re all inspired by one of the greatest pictures in American history, capturing the moment when six United States Marines raised our flag on the beaches Iwo Jima.

Our flag and its history bring out strong emotions in us. It brought forth the patriotism in those young UNC students. “My fraternity brother and others ran over to hold it up, in order for it not to touch the ground,” Pi Kappa Phi member Guillermo Estrada wrote on social media. “People began throwing water bottles at us, rocks, sticks, calling us profane names. We stood for an hour defending the flag so many fight to protect.”

Guillermo explained that his “parents started a new life in the United States, a country that has helped them flourish and raise two kids. I grew up in a Military community and saw firsthand the sacrifices they make.” He said he would not stand by as the protestors disrespected the flag and the sacrifice it stands for.  

His mother and father should be proud, and mothers and fathers around the country should be glad to know there are young men willing to stand for what’s right. It’s men like this who make us confident in our future; men like who make America great.

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