READERS RESPOND -- Community discusses Newport Harbor’s halftime

show

As a band member of Newport Harbor High, I feel we have been unfairly

judged and portrayed. Thursday, I read about how “shocked and ashamed”

someone was at the “flying” of the Confederate flag. I thought to myself,

“Flying? We weren’t ‘flying’ the flag.”

Furthermore, that person didn’t need to feel shocked or ashamed. We

did not intend to cause any harm or send any “messages” to anybody. If we

did send a message about our “Sailor Pride,” it was only for us to learn

from the past and stand together as brothers under one flag. That was

exactly what our central backdrop intended to do, but it wasn’t seen

because the second layer did not come down.

After our field show competition last weekend, our band director had

also went around and asked other directors -- including African American

directors -- how they felt about the theme of our show. All the answers

came back positive.

I think that maybe people seeing our show should pay more attention to

the hard work that we had put into both the show itself, the music and

the different backdrops we painted. If they took time to listen to us and

really look at our props, they would realize that what we are doing is

advocating a united nation.

YI-CHUN CHEN

Newport Beach

* EDITOR’S NOTE: Yi-Chun Chen is a Newport Harbor High School senior.

We must be sensitive to others but not to the point of being

insensitive to the fundamentals of what represents the USA. It’s the

American flag. It was most alarming to me to read in the Daily Pilot that

the Newport Harbor High School principal has lost his principles by

deciding to cover the American flag because it may be offensive.

Are the minority of opinions ruling for the majority here? This

political incorrectness thing is going too far.

JAY BAKER

Corona del Mar

My name is Ian Douglas, and I am a junior in the Newport Harbor

Marching Regiment. For the last three years, nobody in Newport, including

The Daily Pilot, has cared about us. We weren’t recognized at all when we

went to Hawaii on Memorial Day to play at the USS Missouri. The Pilot,

like the rest of this city, has refused to acknowledge the fact that we

exist.

At every home football game Newport Harbor has, we do a field show. It

has been this way since our band director started to work there. For the

last three years, we have been ignored at the football games, though

finally the stands have started to acknowledge us this year.

The Nov. 9 football game was the first time we had our field show

completed. That was why we had our sets out on the field.

The way the crowd cheered almost brought a tear to my eye. Instead of

the 20 or so people who normally cheer for us, the whole stadium was

cheering.

That is the type of respect that we have dreamed that our school would

one day show us. Now we get called racist by people who haven’t even seen

the show because of the article in the Pilot.

We also were just accepted to the Tournament Of Champions with the

show that caused these problems. At the last competition, we asked every

African American director, assistant director and instructors what they

thought of the field show and they had no problems with it.

Next time, it would be nice to hear of the good things people do.

IAN DOUGLAS

Newport Beach

The Confederate flag is a part of American history. Like it or not, it

is there. Ignoring it will not make it go away, nor should we try.

Had the flag been used by the high school as a method to foster a

policy of racism, I would understand the outcry; but for some to suggest

it should have been adjusted simply because a large part of the visiting

audience was African American is ludicrous.

It was used as a historical reference. Nothing more, nothing less. It

is time that we make a stand against political correctness gone awry. I

would have hoped Principal Michael Vossen would have made that stand.

THOMAS HENDERSON

Newport Beach