Triggered by the American flag? Here’s the solution

Stephanie Lundquist-Arora is a mother in Fairfax County, Virginia, an author, a member of the Coalition for TJ, and the Fairfax chapter leader of the Independent Women’s Network. This piece originally appeared on Washington Examiner.

Earlier this month, the organizers of the Emerald City Hoedown in Seattle kicked out a women’s country line dance team because their American flag shirts made some audience members feel “triggered and unsafe.”

The incident made me wonder if Fairfax County School Board member Melanie Meren was in the audience. In May 2023, Meren, now the board’s vice chairwoman, reportedly demanded the removal of artwork containing images of the American flag in the school board’s headquarters because it “triggered” her.

The idea that Americans are “triggered” by our nation’s flag is troubling. Quite frankly, if “triggered” was not such a pathetic word overused by weak-minded leftists, I might use it to describe my own feelings about the matter. But really, I’m furious that a small segment of our fellow Americans claim to be “triggered” by Old Glory.

Many brave Americans paid with their lives for the freedom that our flag represents. Our freedoms, including those of the so-called triggered people, are a result of that blood sacrifice. My husband, brother, father, and both grandfathers are all veterans. Families of veterans are intimately familiar with the sacrifices that our men and women in uniform have made and continue to make for the principles that our flag represents.

We are so free, in fact, that we protect these leftists’ right to sit during the national anthem and the pledge of allegiance. Their failure to stand is repugnant, but wonderfully illustrative of the constitutional freedoms that our flag represents and for which our military servicemen have paid.

There is a certain type of person “triggered” by our flag. They are generally affluent enough that they do not have much else to think about outside of the problems that they manufacture. Their graduate school education, (Meren went to Duke University, for example), probably helped them along their journey of considering all the ways that they are personally oppressed.

So, the solution is simple. These predominantly white, leftists might consider using their resources to take advantage of our porous southern border and find a flag that they do support. 

There’s no shortage of migrants who would gladly take their place. In Fiscal Year 2023, for example, U.S. Customs and Border Protection reported more than 3.2 million encounters with illegal migrants. With no signs of letting up, border encounters approached 1.5 million in Fiscal Year 2024 by the end of February. Illegal immigrants are clearly flooding in from south to north, but I wonder if the Mexican government might be amenable to taking American asylum-seekers who are “triggered” by our flag and “feel unsafe.”

Perhaps as asylum seekers, these Americans would find comfort living in Mexico and the Mexican flag would not trigger them. Maybe the Rain Country Dance Association could even hold its next dance competition in Mexico so its audience might feel more safe and less triggered.