Members of the cheerleading squad at Dodge County High School in Eastman, GA started selling patriotic t-shirts in order to raise funds for upcoming cheer competitions. The t-shirts, which included a depiction of the American Flag and a cross, read in part, “In Dodge County, We Stand for the Flag, Kneel for the Cross.”
Situated in the Bible Belt, Eastman, GA is certainly not a bastion of liberal values. Therefore, one would think the school administrators in Dodge County would wholeheartedly support the cheerleading staff in their worthy fundraiser. Unfortunately, due to the persistent protestations of Shirley Ikedionwu, a member of the Dodge County School Board, the t-shirts can no longer be sold at the school.
On Facebook, Ikedionwu labeled the t-shirts as “politically divisive.”
“This shirt is not only one-sided but offensive,” she said. “I can’t imagine how our children would feel entering a place that is supposed to be welcoming and accepting of students from all walks of life, beliefs, and perspectives – but instead, they are faced with this type of exclusionary message.”
The embittered school board member contacted administrators of the Dodge County School system in order to make her concerns known. She wrote, “At this point, the shirt will no longer be sold.”
Ikedionwu wasn’t the only person offended by the patriotic t-shirts. During an interview with television station WMAZ, a resident complained, “It stands for the hurt of black people getting killed, beat by police officers and getting off with it. So therefore, we as black people, some of us have taken that, to us, that’s what it looks like.”
Another local, Bill Tripp, had a different take concerning the controversy. When interviewed on the “Todd Starnes Radio Show,” Tripp remarked, “I don’t see anything wrong with that shirt. The South is known for being the Bible Belt. If you can’t stand for the flag and you can’t stand for the cross – I don’t know what you can stand for.”
Apparently, many people in Dodge County and elsewhere share Tripp’s view. After the school disallowed the cheerleaders to sell their t-shirts, local businesses and residents decided to help the teenagers market their merchandise off the school’s campus. The manager of White Hat Auto in Eastman, GA, Nikki Mullis, declared, “I’m standing because it has the United States flag on it and the cross. Those are two things I will back any day of the week.” Mullis revealed on the “Todd Starnes Radio Show” that people all over the world are contacting her business in order to buy the popular t-shirts. On August 16, 2018, the business sent three of them to Afghanistan.
On the “Todd Starnes Radio Show,” Mullis confided, “This ain’t just Georgia anymore. We are a community that when something happens we are all together.” Credit manager Amanda Parker informed Todd Starnes that she would never have believed a controversy would arise concerning the American Flag and God. She said, “We are just a small town in Eastman, Georgia and we’re standing up for our Christian faith and what we believe in.”
The cheerleaders at Dodge County High School should probably thank former professional football player Colin Kaepernick for all of the controversy surrounding their t-shirt debacle. When he began kneeling during the national anthem during NFL football games in order to protest against police brutality, he started a troubling trend. This has led to the brainwashing of the millions of Americans who now associate any form of patriotism with unjustness.
Explaining the fallacy of such a gross misrepresentation, Isa Cox, writer for the Constitution, said, “Conflating our flag with every unjust thing that has happened in our history is absolutely idiotic. Our justice system is certainly imperfect, but it is with the spirit of our founding philosophy that we could push back against any injustice, not because of it.”
She went on to add, “It is only because of the ideals of liberty, equality, and justice that our nation has inspired in the hearts of millions that anyone would object to the unjust treatment of criminals to begin with.”
Pray for the broken, anti-Christian America the cheerleaders at Dodge County High School and others are growing up in today.
~ 1776 Christian
