Was this a "rager for the broletariat," as one media outlet put it, or a celebration of American patriotism? Perhaps both, but as my friend John Ondrasik tells me in this exclusive* interview, "it was all America."
The lead singer of Five for Fighting joined John Rich and other performers at Flagstock this week to celebrate the fraternity members who rescued the American flag on the University of North Carolina campus. Pro-Palestinian rioters had returned after being ejected from campus to once again pull down the flag and replace it with a Palestinian banner. Students from at least a half-dozen fraternities rescued the flag and kept it from being taken by the rioters. A groundswell of appreciation from around the country led to a GoFundMe account for a party, as contributions reached over $500,000:
John and I spoke yesterday afternoon about his experience at Flagstock in this exclusive* interview. We spoke about the challenges young adults face in Academia, and the values that get skewed by the radical-progressive clique that dominates it. Nevertheless, John insists that there is reason for hope and optimism in the young-adult generation, and that he saw it himself at Flagstock.
Highlights from John's observations include:
- "So on Labor Day, a bunch of us went out to North Carolina and to the middle of nowhere. Because of security. The kids didn't even know where it was they actually went to a location, got on buses and we brought them in and John Rich from Big and Rich and John Noonan just created an amazing experience, a huge stage. Fireworks, flyovers, free beer, Hooter girls, Legionnaires. It was all America. And yeah, you know, they got probably about a thousand kids there with their families."
- "[U]nlike most of the Palestinian protest riots, there was not one mask in the house. Everybody showed their face. Everybody was happy to smile and take a picture. And so the whole tone was much more uplifting than some of the other protests we're seeing on our campuses."
- "A lot of these college campus kids have been indoctrinated. They feel like they're doing something virtuous. But at the end of the day, most of them are paper tigers. You stand up, you educate them, you talk to them, they collapse. And we're going to do that."
- "I talked about the fact that we need to save these kids who've been indoctrinated on the campuses. I thanked them for their moral courage. I talked about the fact that that a lot of this vitriol on campus has to be stood up to, and that they had more courage than all of the university presidents put together. So to me, that's not political, it's moral."
- "When I was in Israel, I was fortunate to spend some time with Natan Sharansky. And he said something to me that goes to your point. He said, you know, ago, 20 somebody asked me him, what's the biggest threat to Western democracy, freedom and liberty in the West? And 20 years ago, he said, American academia. Because he saw it. He saw it in Russia, you know, when he was imprisoned. It started at the colleges."
The interview has plenty more from both John and myself. John is as generous with his time as always, and as firmly grounded in right and wrong as well. Watch it all, and keep an eye on the Five for Fighting website and John's Twitter/X account to find out more about his efforts and those of the band.
The Ed Morrissey Show is now a fully downloadable and streamable show at Spotify, Apple Podcasts, the TEMS Podcast YouTube channel, and on Rumble and our own in-house portal at the #TEMS page!
* - "Exclusive," in the common media definition that there was no one else in the room at the time.