Lawmakers Intimidate UT-Arlington

We have a sordid little political drama going on in Arlington. It all started as an attempt to honor a local university's diversity. The University of Texas at Arlington is proud of its diversity, and the engineering school celebrated this by flying 123 flags in Nedderman Hall. These flags represent the 123 countries from which UTA engineering students come. The 123rd flag was put up in April, and that is where the trouble begins.

The 123rd flag is the official flag of Vietnam, a red and blue flag with a yellow star in the middle. Arlington has the 15th largest community of Vietnamese in the United States, and evidently some of these people were offended when this flag was put up. Their community leaders asked UTA to take down the flag. UTA refused, but did put up the old South Vietnamese flag [yellow flag with three horizontal red stripes] in an attempt to be sensitive to the Vietnamese-American community.

This was not good enough and a demonstration was held that drew about 3,000 people. They demanded the official flag be removed because it was the flag of North Vietnam during their civil war. When the demonstration did not result in removal of the "offensive" flag, the demonstrators took their demands to Austin. They found some lawmakers there willing to do their dirty-work.

Toby Goodman [R-Arlington] and Hubert Vo [D-Houston] then began to put pressure on the school. They either told or insinuated to UTA that state funds might be withheld from the school [the school is trying to get state funds to build a new engineering building]. Goodman was quoted by the Fort Worth Star-Telegram as saying, "It was anticipated that an amendment would be offered that would strip funding for UTA as long as that flag flew."

When threatened with the cut-off of state funds [critical for a state university], UTA capitulated. They have now removed all 123 flags from Nedderman Hall. Even this has not quelled the demonstrators. They are now demanding an apology from UTA. Ridiculous!

Let me be clear about this. There is no right in this country to not be offended. In fact, if you are never offended, then you don't live in a free country. UTA was right in this matter. The demonstrators and the lawmakers were wrong. In Texas, it seems the "politics of intimidation" are alive and well in both political parties. What are Texas voters to do?