Please sign this if you, as a King's member (Graduate & Undergraduate), are disappointed in the recent decision to keep the flag and think it should be removed.
This petition would be used to show that the most recent vote result was not representative of the College, and that this should be put to a referendum.
Updates
January 27, 2014
I have spent the last few days talking with students who feel ignored by the recent vote. We are currently drafting a formal request for a student referendum to ensure our college spaces actually reflect the values of the people who study here.
January 27, 2014
Seeing this level of support for removing the flag confirms that my fellow students and I are not alone in feeling alienated by the current display. This momentum proves that the previous vote failed to reflect the true sentiment of our community.
22 Comments
The Kings community cannot afford to exclude voices in the community, in order to confirm its liberalist ideals. By keeping the flag in spite of students feeling upset about it, we are effectively saying that King's image matters more than the King's community.
Even if the flag in the bar is ever-so-slightly different from Stalin's flag, it still represents an oppressive totalitarian regime. There was still plenty of oppression in the Soviet Union for decades after the early 1950s. There was no free speech, people were arrested on trumped up charges, there was discrimination against Jews, etc. For these and many other reasons, even a post-Stalin Soviet flag is offensive to me and likely to a lot of others.
In 2010 the decision was put to a college-wide referendum, so precedent would suggest this is the most appropriate way of making the decision.
If it offends people, then it shouldn't be up in our public space. Let's let those who have been affected by the Communist regime decide whether it's offensive or not.
There is a certain, painful irony about a protracted process to democratically replace this hurtful and highly offensive image with one aimed at better reflecting the active, democratic and honest way that we would like to see this college, followed abruptly by a spontaneous vote to keep the flag. Come on, King's: follow through.
Firstly, of course people should be able to feel comfortable in College. Secondly, if the hammer and sickle has simply become a symbol of King’s bien pensant romantic leftism, perhaps it’s time for a shakeup. Out of the current options, why not the Maggie Thatcher flag? Or perhaps better still, a life-size statue of that oh so beloved stateswoman. (Madame Tussauds, I’m sure, would lend us their waxen effigy)
All King's members should feel comfortable in our home. There is no excuse for ignoring the clear distress of some of our fellow college members.
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Please sign this if you, as a King's member (Graduate & Undergraduate), are disappointed in the recent decision to keep the flag and think it should be removed.
This petition would be used to show that the most recent vote result was not representative of the College, and that this should be put to a referendum.
Updates
January 27, 2014
I have spent the last few days talking with students who feel ignored by the recent vote. We are currently drafting a formal request for a student referendum to ensure our college spaces actually reflect the values of the people who study here.
January 27, 2014
Seeing this level of support for removing the flag confirms that my fellow students and I are not alone in feeling alienated by the current display. This momentum proves that the previous vote failed to reflect the true sentiment of our community.
22 Comments
Our bar should be a place where people feel welcomed not ignored or offended. We don't need that flag to show what kind of college this is and i think keeping it up there says something really terrible about us. Made me ashamed to be King's.
The Kings community cannot afford to exclude voices in the community, in order to confirm its liberalist ideals. By keeping the flag in spite of students feeling upset about it, we are effectively saying that King's image matters more than the King's community.
Even if the flag in the bar is ever-so-slightly different from Stalin's flag, it still represents an oppressive totalitarian regime. There was still plenty of oppression in the Soviet Union for decades after the early 1950s. There was no free speech, people were arrested on trumped up charges, there was discrimination against Jews, etc. For these and many other reasons, even a post-Stalin Soviet flag is offensive to me and likely to a lot of others.
In 2010 the decision was put to a college-wide referendum, so precedent would suggest this is the most appropriate way of making the decision.
If it offends people, then it shouldn't be up in our public space. Let's let those who have been affected by the Communist regime decide whether it's offensive or not.
There is a certain, painful irony about a protracted process to democratically replace this hurtful and highly offensive image with one aimed at better reflecting the active, democratic and honest way that we would like to see this college, followed abruptly by a spontaneous vote to keep the flag. Come on, King's: follow through.
Firstly, of course people should be able to feel comfortable in College. Secondly, if the hammer and sickle has simply become a symbol of King’s bien pensant romantic leftism, perhaps it’s time for a shakeup. Out of the current options, why not the Maggie Thatcher flag? Or perhaps better still, a life-size statue of that oh so beloved stateswoman. (Madame Tussauds, I’m sure, would lend us their waxen effigy)
All King's members should feel comfortable in our home. There is no excuse for ignoring the clear distress of some of our fellow college members.
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Our bar should be a place where people feel welcomed not ignored or offended. We don't need that flag to show what kind of college this is and i think keeping it up there says something really terrible about us. Made me ashamed to be King's.