Mai Vang is a Sacramento City Council member. She’s also running for Congress in California’s 7th Congressional District this fall.
According to her home page’s bio, she holds bachelor’s degrees in biology and sociology from the University of San Francisco. She has two master’s degrees from the University of California, Los Angeles — one in public health, another in Asian-American studies.
In her free time, she teaches ethnic studies at the California State University, Sacramento. The daughter of Hmong refugees from Laos, she’s also taught Asian-American studies at the University of California, Davis.
“Vang currently serves on several Sacramento regional Boards, Commissions, Committees, and Authorities,” her homepage reads, in addition to noting she has “received several awards for her unwavering dedication to equity and racial justice.”
In spite of that — or perhaps because of it, given the politics of academia and grievance “justice” — she seems to know less about the Pledge of Allegiance than comedian Red Skelton, who only went to school until the seventh grade, did.
Vang managed to go bad-viral in a video where she turned her back on the American flag during the pledge, which was circulated initially during Memorial Day weekend.
Sacramento Councilwoman Mai Vang turns back on flag, rejects Pledge Of Allegiance: pic.twitter.com/0IIJUuRoPu
— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) May 24, 2026
Vang, as it turns out, has been doing this for a while; in a 2025 Facebook post, she says (rather inexplicably, although she does attempt something like an explanation) that she does this because she loves America so darn much that she must express her contempt for it.
“This is exactly why I choose not to recite the Pledge of Allegiance during every council meeting,” Vang said. “As much as I love this country, I use that moment to ground myself — to center our communities and remind myself of the injustices and harm that continue to affect so many, both locally and across the globe, under this nation’s influence.”
“We must not tune out — they want us to become numb to the realities we see in the news — it’s part of the plan to keep us complacent. But instead, we resist. We surround ourselves with loved ones, take time to rest, remain vigilant, and stay steadfast in the fight for equity, justice & humanity. We got us. I love you all.”
If that sounds a lot like something only someone steeped in academia could come up with, you’re right. Skelton, meanwhile, left school (and home) in his early teens during the Great Depression, yet came up with a routine about learning the Pledge of Allegiance in school that displays considerably more insight than anything Vang wants to push.
As he said, the principal of his school in Vincennes, Indiana, thought that the students were saying the pledge a bit too absentmindedly.
“A real sage of my time,” Skelton said, and he wasn’t wrong. Here’s how he described the explanation of each of the words that the principal, Mr. Lasswell, gave:
“‘I’: Me, an individual, a committee of one,” Skelton began.
“‘Pledge’: Dedicate all of my worldly goods to give, without self pity. ‘Allegiance’: My love and my devotion. ‘To the flag’: Our standard, Old Glory, a symbol of freedom. Wherever she waves there’s respect because your loyalty has given her a dignity that shouts, ‘Freedom is everybody’s job!’”
“‘United’: That means we have all come together. ‘States’: Individual communities that have united into 48 great states, 48 individual communities with pride and dignity and purpose, all divided with imaginary boundaries, yet united to a common purpose, and that’s love for country.”
“‘And to the republic’: A state in which the sovereign power is invested in representatives chosen by the people to govern, and government is the people, and it’s from the people to the leaders. Not from the leaders to the people,” he continued.
“‘One nation,’ meaning so blessed by God. ‘Indivisible’: Incapable of being divided. ‘With liberty,’ which is freedom, the right of power to live one’s own life without threats, fear, or some sort of retaliation. ‘And justice’: the principle or qualities of dealing fairly with others. ‘For all,’ which means, boys and girls, it’s as much your country as it is mine.”
And then he got the crowd to say it along with him:
Skelton added that since he was a boy, two states had been added to the union, along with two words to the pledge — “Under God.”
“Wouldn’t it be a pity if someone said, ‘That is a prayer,’ and that would be eliminated from schools, too?” Skelton added.
Yeah, that was a joke when this was recorded. Not so much anymore. In fact, this is arguably what Vang hopes to accomplish somehow, some way, in her work as a public official.
She believes in herself, sure. She also believes in a certain kind of unity, apart from national unity. You heard her words: “We got us.” She pledges to some, not to all: She wants to “center our communities,” after all, which is why she turns her back on the flag.
United? Of course not. It’s “us” and them — and “they want us to become numb to the realities” of whatever perceived injustices she wants to center. Her idea of “justice” is a lot different than the one Skelton describes, “equity” being a whole lot different than “the principle or qualities of dealing fairly with others.”
No wonder she turned her back.
Skelton’s routine, from nearly 60 years ago, was from a time before leftists had eaten through the pillars of our culture and country like a bunch of communist termites. It was a time when we knew that even if America isn’t perfect, she is still great.
It’s a pity we can’t elect Red Skelton to Vang’s seat, given that he’s been dead for three decades now. That means he can still probably vote in California, though, so let’s hope he and the rest of her constituency cast their ballots against this anti-American divider.
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