I’m furious a 12-year-old was shamed for patriotically wearing our flag at summer camp

At my South Side Chicago summer camp, we just wrapped eight weeks of pure, unfiltered childhood joy. Kids splashed at water parks, explored the countryside, learned financial literacy, and crafted speeches to build confidence. Not once did politics creep into the picture. That’s how it should be—a sanctuary where kids can be kids, free from the divisive noise of adult agendas.

So, imagine my shock hearing about the summer camp my friend’s daughter attended. Nestled in a century-old mountain paradise of trees and lakes, it looked like the all-American camp—until it wasn’t. 

On the Fourth of July, my friend’s 12-year-old daughter proudly wore an American flag shirt, a nod to her family’s journey from slavery and segregation to freedom and opportunity. They’re a family that knows America’s flaws but still sees her as the greatest nation on Earth.

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At breakfast, another camper confronted her about the flag shirt. “How can you believe in a country that has done horrible things to your people?” the girl demanded. She then parroted social justice buzzwords about “white privilege” and “systemic racism and called celebrating the Fourth pointless until “true equality” is achieved. 

My friend’s daughter, a smart girl herself, pushed back, pointing to her family’s progress as proof of America’s promise. But she was up against a brick wall of bad-faith anti-Americanism, fed by rehearsed lines about colonized land and Native American atrocities and oppressor privilege. The exchange left her deflated and her excitement for a day of lake fun, s’mores, and patriotic singing around the campfire, faded.

It didn’t stop there. Days later, the camp forced the kids into a “privilege walk.” They stood hand-in-hand, only to be divided by questions like, “Step forward if you’ve been racially profiled in a store,” or “if your parents taught you how to act around police.” My friend’s daughter, wise beyond her years, refused to play this game that branded kids as either oppressors or victims. Good for her.

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This story set my blood boiling. Summer camp isn’t a place for political crusades. Kids are born innocent—let them stay that way as long as possible. That doesn’t mean shielding them from reality; it means not poisoning their minds with toxic narratives that paint America as inherently evil. What’s the point of guilting a 12-year-old for loving her country?

Our kids deserve camps filled with joy and discovery, not lectures on why they should be ashamed of their nation.  (Jacob Hamilton/The Bay City Times via AP. )

This obsession with politicizing our children has to stop. They deserve the freedom to grow into independent thinkers, not pawns in someone’s ideological war. 

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They deserve camps filled with joy and discovery, not lectures on why they should be ashamed of their nation. 

It’s time we let kids be kids again. And it is time that we fight for this kind of all-American existence before it’s too late.

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