No pledging allegiance to cloth at THIS school district
June 11, 2008A Portland, Ore., mom is all upset because her precious little snowflake isn’t being forced to recite the Pledge of Allegiance at a promotion ceremony:
“I was sad,” said parent Briana Reese. “The flag was sitting up there, you know. Two of the kids went up and they said ‘Everybody rise,’ and we rose, and I thought for just a second ‘Oh yeah, we’re going to put our hands on our hearts and we’re going to salute the flag’ – but no.”
Reese had heard that the principal planned to take the pledge out of the ceremony.
“I think that’s what they should be doing – telling kids you should be pledging your allegiance to this country,” Reese said. “This is a great country. You’re here for a reason.”
The pledge was instead replaced with a singing version of the preamble to the Constitution.
Kudos to the principal for getting it. The pledge is nothing more than a blind loyalty oath to a piece of cloth that symbolizes a nation. And thanks to tinkering over the years, it’s been turned into a form of state-mandated prayer. At least this kids are being exposed to the idea that the United States is a nation governed by laws and that the people have rights.
Conservatives and liberals like the pledge, but don’t have really warm feelings for the Constitution because, when properly followed, it tends to get in the way of whatever flavor of Nanny State nonsense they want to foist on the public.
Tags: pledge
June 11th, 2008 at 6:10 pm
I usually don’t weigh in on stuff like this, but this is a core value that deserves civil discourse.
A tenet of citizenship is that all citizens pledge allegiance to the United States for which it stands. That means that I am pledging allegiance to liberty and justice for all, and I that I will fight to pevent any state from secede from the union. Some folks can take or leave the “God” part, and they are free to not speak that part.
Do you disagree with those principles, my interpretation of the pledge, or with the way that those principles are (or are not) understood by people reciting the pledge? If these principles are indeed universal and form a common societal agreement, are you against public affirmations of them?
For the record, every kid should know the preamble AND the Bill of Rights, too. I thank “School House Rocks” for teaching them to me!
June 11th, 2008 at 6:30 pm
Pledges are useless, except as a way to indoctrinate loyalty and obediance. I much prefer a thinking, rational loyalty to one’s nation. It is not hard to come to this conclusion that one ought to be loyal to a and ready to defend the United States.
And do you think for a moment that someone who really intends to harm to the United States would not hesitate to recite an oath, and do it enthusiastically with tears rolling down their cheeks?
I’ll bring a book into work Saturday written by Robert A. Heinlein. It contains an article on the rational basis for patriotism that pretty wells sums up how I feel.
And I do alter the Pledge when I am called upon to recite it. I pledge allegiance to the Constitution (not the flag) and leave out the nonsense about God. God does not give a flying rat’s ass about nations. And if she/he/it did, that nation would be Israel.
June 11th, 2008 at 8:10 pm
[...] No pledging allegiance to cloth at this school district A Portland, Ore., mom is all upset because her precious little snowflake isn’t being forced to recite the Pledge of Allegiance at a promotion ceremony:. “I was sad,†said parent Briana Reese. “The flag was sitting up there, you know. … [...]
November 16th, 2008 at 5:55 pm
I’m absolutely tickled that there’s a school somewhere that has replaced the pledge with the preamble to the constitution! Billy, we’re clearly of one mind on this issue. Did you know it’s a state law in Illinois that public school teachers must lead the students in the pledge every day? Kids don’t have to say it, but teachers must. First amendment? Hello? My kids know they don’t have to say it, but they choose to, to avoid controversy. However, they remain mum on the “under God” part.
I have to take exception, however, to your blanket characterization of liberals as loving the pledge. Maybe I’m farther left than what you think of as liberals, but I and those I know who call themselves liberals do NOT love the pledge. In fact, one of said friends recently was handing around Constitution lapel pins, and many of us wear them proudly. You know, as an alternative to those flag pins. We’re a nation of laws, not needlework, after all.
November 16th, 2008 at 8:49 pm
I was referring to those liberals who feel the need to “our patriot” the fundies.
I heard Joe Biden say recently: “Everyone is a patriot.”
Obviously, this isn’t true. Some people don’t give a flying rats ass about their own families, let alone their communities and certainly not their own country, beyond an occasional “America, Hell yeah.”
I define a patriot as someone who is willing to take an action that benefits the nation even if that action is not in his interest, or in his family’s IMMEDIATE interest.
Wearing a pin, reciting the pledge or putting one of those damn magnets on your ain’t NUTHIN’ like that.