http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20061110/...fe_pledge_dc_5

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WARNING: In the unlikely event of an accidental agreement with any or all points made in the above post, contact a clinical psychologist immediately.

The views expressed in the above post are not necessarily those of Joker and/or any of his affiliates.

"You have found the secret message. Do you have too much time on your hands? ...Let it go."

This isn't exactly a ban; it's the trustees declining to include recitation of the Pledge as part of their meetings. Most of this appears to be overheated student rhetoric.

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Man up.

This is perfect example of a typical misleading headline on a topic.The kind of thing the newspapers and the television news do to suck in the viewer. (my pet peeve)

I guess i could say "who cares" but sooner or later the "silent majority" will have had enough.(They are busy at the moment with work,family,and their humble dreams) I will wait for that day patiently.

Meantime: Let God speak for himself on the subject.

This doesn't affect other groups meeting on that campus. The time to worry is when the college trustees (the adult ones, that is) try doing the same thing. At that point expect the scummunist left telling us that patriotism is so, so....Un-American. Our college educrats sure feel that way.

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Delivering tasty bite-sized Clues to liberals since 1965.

Pledging allegience what a joke.

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"In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule." - Nietzsche

"I pledge allegiance to the flag of the multinational corporations of america, and to the profit for which they stand; one interlocking directorate under no government: indivisible, with monopoly and cheap labor for all"
-Utah Phillips

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"In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule." - Nietzsche

This is just stupid on multiple levels. I suppose that the students are free to leave the group if they disagree, so technically these illiberal petty dictators are within their rights. However, incidents like this, relatively rare though they are, sustain the very existence of the paranoid Religious Right. Because these student leaders felt the need to go on a power trip and ban the Pledge of Allegiance (albeit on a very small scale), this will be on countless far-right websites as evidence of some "secular agenda" to destroy America and its morals. I've been on those sites and seen how they take incidents like this and try to represent them as the norm to scare Christians and patriotic people into moving right politically. Jerry Falwell really ought to write these students a generous check.
I am a Christian, but I would never attempt to impose expressions of religious belief on others, even if I was technically within my legal rights in doing so. While I'm no jingoist, I would recite the Pledge of Allegiance because I have deep respect for America because of the principles on which it was founded, but I would not attempt to force others to express themselves in the same way.
My point is this. I am very socially liberal, but I pick my battles. The words "under God" aren't going undermine church/state separation, nor is the Pledge of Allegiance anything more than an acknowledgement of the nation in which one lives. No one should be forced to say "under God" or not to say it and no one should be forced to say the Pledge of Allegiance or not to say it. These are matters of personal choice and neither courts nor student leaders should attempt to interfere with free expression. If fellow social liberals don't pick their battles and be genuinely tolerant, they will cause a backlash of Fundamentalism and jingoism. Save the fighting for when the Religious Right attempts to stand in the way of privacy rights, gay equality, free speech and other deeply important issues. Nutty hard right-wingers may as well be scripting these incidents, because they are the only ones who benefit from such actions.

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"Some people complain about the system. The system is not good, so they can't do anything. It's an excuse. Freedom is in your heart." (Jin Xing)

Forcing children to recite the Pledge every day calls into question the following:
Does the Pledge expire at midnight? Must one renew it each day for it to still be in effect?

Kudos to the 18-year old political science major who stood up and recited the Pledge in front of them anyway. Now, she's my kind of American!!!! Way to go girl!!

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"This is a time for a national imperative not to fail in Iraq." Condoleeza Rice, January 11, 2007

I didn't write any personal statements because I wasn't sure how I felt about the story. I wanted to hear some other opinions. I think your post is completely correct, which is why teachers should never try to force their students to recite the pledge in school, as I had seen many times as a student.

As a teacher, I would never force any of my students to do anything that they were uncomfortable with. (Okay that's not entirely true. I once forced a shy little Indonesian girl to make a 7 minute speech before the whole class, but it was a class on public speaking.)

__________________
WARNING: In the unlikely event of an accidental agreement with any or all points made in the above post, contact a clinical psychologist immediately.

The views expressed in the above post are not necessarily those of Joker and/or any of his affiliates.

"You have found the secret message. Do you have too much time on your hands? ...Let it go."