In memory of the 10^th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, students across the country have set up displays of 3,000 flags to represent those lives lost on that fateful day.

This simple gesture of solemn patriotism is under attack at Marietta College for being “too American.”

Administrators threatened to cancel the event at the college due to the display “being too offensive” to non-American students by not including flags from other countries. 

Sarah Snow, a junior at Marietta, got the 9/11 Never Forget Project approved more than two months ago, but days before the memorial was to be set-up, Robert Pastoor, the Vice President of Student Life, denied the approval unless foreign flags were also included.

As reported in an interview with HUMAN EVENTS, Snow stated, “He [Robert Pastoor] insisted we add the international flags for the reason that it was a ‘global perspective’ school.”

Snow said Pastoor’s reasoning behind the threatened ban was that “Other nationalities were killed in the twin towers as well” and that Marietta must “consider how the Muslim and Chinese students will feel about the [American flag] display.”

According to emails obtained and released by HUMAN EVENTS, on August 30th the Director of Student Activities wrote the following to Snow: “… are you planning to include other countries flags? There were more than just Americans that lost their lives on 9/11. I will send you a list of the other countries so that you can add these flags to the presentation.”  

In a follow-up email, that same director gave a “list of the countries that will need to have flags as part of the 9/11 remembrance,” which included Australia, Bermuda, Canada, China, El Salvador, Germany, Grenada, Ireland, Israel, Japan, Sweden and the United Kingdom.

This blatant leftist bureaucracy isn’t hard to see according to Snow, “Those in Student Life were the only ones opposing the selection of American flags.  My Saudi Arabian peers were even sympathetic, telling me, ‘It’s 9/11.  We understand why you want to do it [use only American flags].’” 

When it came down to it, Snow decided to continue to pay homage to her fellow fallen Americans, even though she was now required to include flags from 12 other countries.

 “Instead of embracing the remembrance of the thousands of innocents who were murdered on 9/11, many college administrators—insensitive to the families and friends of those who died on 9/11—are more interested in creating political correctness tests than coming together to honor the victims of the jihadist attacks,” said Ron Robinson, president of Young America’s Foundation, the organization that's planning the 9/11 Never Forget Project at high schools and colleges across the country. 

“Colleges trip over themselves in excitement when they plan Earth Day, yet every year, these same institutions put up roadblock after roadblock for students seeking to do something as meaningful as remembering 9/11,” he added.

The Marietta administration will be hosting 9/11 events on their own, including a discussion on “how Muslims in the U.S. see/experience freedom of speech”  and a talk “on the misconception of the Arab-Muslim culture in the Western world, and the stereotypes Muslims experience in the U.S.”
 
Bring the 9/11 Never Forget Project to your campus and remember those who lost their lives on the worst attack against Americans, on American soil. 

If you receive resistance such at Snow, contact your Regional Field Coordinator for assistance and support.