pledge of allegiance in schools?

[Anonymous]

12:33 and 12:37, please explain why not reciting the Pledge of Allegience means that the person is any less of an American?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No child has to say it; they do have to stand, though.

I am very conservative and yet I think it's a little creepy to pledge allegiance to a flag. I love our flag and I love seeing it fly, but there's something about chanting the pledge that I do find a bit odd. It is tradition, though, so I don't get too worked up about it.

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Every day soldiers are getting their arms and legs blown off locking and loading for YOU, and you cannot even feel like reciting the pledge of allegiance?

You are that selfish?

OMG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Go tell a wounded veteran that - I DARE you.

Please do not diminish what our veterans do/have done. It isn't for you to bully people into saying the pledge of allegiance.

Also, your argument is lazy. Referring to veterans as an emotional pitch for saying it. Make your argument stand on its own.

Finally, I would hope and I have every reason to expect that our veterans would be more professional and better trained than to respond (in the way that you imply-violence?) to someone's refusal to say the pledge.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
And you and the PPs are all jehovahs witnesses, right? Come on - not, you are just LOONS.

Obviously, jehovahs witnesses have a religious reason and right not to recite it. I don't find that un-American and frankly disgusting. But all of you loon posters who refuse to say it just because, or just for the principle or notion or whatever is just repulsive. I wish you would just leave the country or at least stay in the city limits of DC.

Did you say leave the country?
That statement is anti-allegiance

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Every day soldiers are getting their arms and legs blown off locking and loading for YOU, and you cannot even feel like reciting the pledge of allegiance?

You are that selfish?

OMG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Go tell a wounded veteran that - I DARE you.

Idiot. I'm a military officer, as is my husband. Neither of us think that this is something that should be done in schools. It's really something that is only common in dictatorships and communist countries.

Or perhaps we don't count since we have had the good fortune not to have our limbs blown off?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Not wanting to recite a pledge =/= treason
Not wanting to recite a pledge =/= disloyalty
Not wanting to recite a pledge =/= willing to sell national secrets

It simply means they don't want to recite a pledge. We all have that choice to make.

Should we build internment camps for Jehovah's Witnesses? Perhaps they can't be trusted because they refuse to pledge allegiance to anything other than God.

And you and the PPs are all jehovahs witnesses, right? Come on - not, you are just LOONS.

Obviously, jehovahs witnesses have a religious reason and right not to recite it. I don't find that un-American and frankly disgusting. But all of you loon posters who refuse to say it just because, or just for the principle or notion or whatever is just repulsive. I wish you would just leave the country or at least stay in the city limits of DC.

You don't need to be a Jehovah's Witness or wounded military to exercise your First Amendment rights. That's why it's called a "right".

Is there any reason you should get to say it as you wish and the rest of us do not?

[Anonymous]

I am not American, and I don't like my K son saying the pledge at school. i think if I was American I wold think the same, but of course that I will never know. It is brainwashing. Recite that EVERY DAY? Why? I would understand if it was for special events ....
My son is too young to understand but, when he is older, I will explain that he has a choice ....

[Anonymous]

I don't quite see why they say it everyday, it seems like a pledge is said once and move on. Sorry but that's just my opinion.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No child has to say it; they do have to stand, though.

I am very conservative and yet I think it's a little creepy to pledge allegiance to a flag. I love our flag and I love seeing it fly, but there's something about chanting the pledge that I do find a bit odd. It is tradition, though, so I don't get too worked up about it.

The flag is obviously symbolic. You are not pledging allegiance to a piece of cloth, but rather to what the piece of cloth symbolically represents: a nation that stands for "liberty and justice for all". I am an atheist and have no problem with the "under God" line. It is a tradition. You are not required to worship or anything. It is part of our culture and tradition as Americans citizens to learn and recite the pledge as kids.

THIS! I never quite grasped what was so important about a flag such as why it is a big deal to let it touch the ground ect. I understand if you are military this is a huge deal to you so please, don't start. But anyway, I think that if the flag was to, for example, touch the group, why would it matter, it is symbolic. It is not as if your rights are being taken away. If we had no flag as a nation, we would still have the same laws and rights. If you served in the military, you are still just as respected as you would have been otherwise, the flag is in a way irrelevant

[Anonymous]

I just think it is so silly to have little preschoolers recite the pledge when they have no idea what it means. My son who just turned 3, can say the pledge, but when asked, can only correctly identify the country that we live in as America about 70 percent of the time. The rest of the time, he says "New York City," where we went on vacation this year. I think it is ridiculous to have preschoolers memorize and recive a bunch of words that mean nothing to them.

[Anonymous]

I like having kids say the pledge -- it's a way to establish a national identity. Unlike many other countries, the United States was and remains a polyglot where there are fewer shared cultural traditions. It's supposed to represent what we have in common and create a common vision. We all came from somewhere else within a relatively few generations, so nation-building is a bit more crucial here than in places where people go back 1000+ years on a single bit of land.

I used to live overseas and sing in local choirs, as well as travel in a large international choir. One of the things that I found odd, was that when we went somewhere and had to sing the local national anthem, much of the time the only people who knew or memorized the local national anthem was the Americans. We tended to think it was a respectful way to thank our hosts.

Independence is good, but deciding to opt out of a national tradition for any other reason than a deep established religious/moral conviction is just another example of the rise of the "special snowflake". Just do the civics part of your education.

[Anonymous]

Oh please
You do not need kindergarteners and preschoolers reciting the pledge in order for a people to have a national 'identity'

[Anonymous]

Hardly the biggest issue, but I feel for the parents of the agnostic non-citizens in your child's class.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I like having kids say the pledge -- it's a way to establish a national identity. Unlike many other countries, the United States was and remains a polyglot where there are fewer shared cultural traditions. It's supposed to represent what we have in common and create a common vision. We all came from somewhere else within a relatively few generations, so nation-building is a bit more crucial here than in places where people go back 1000+ years on a single bit of land.

I used to live overseas and sing in local choirs, as well as travel in a large international choir. One of the things that I found odd, was that when we went somewhere and had to sing the local national anthem, much of the time the only people who knew or memorized the local national anthem was the Americans. We tended to think it was a respectful way to thank our hosts.

Independence is good, but deciding to opt out of a national tradition for any other reason than a deep established religious/moral conviction is just another example of the rise of the "special snowflake". Just do the civics part of your education.

You think a pledge is a way to establish a national identify? You think that's what we need? Understanding and respecting the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution remain the best way to establish a national identify, not some stupid pledge that a lot of people have problems with. The Declaration of Independence and the Constitution are what we identify with. That's what the 'civics part of education' should be.

My experience overseas is that far more non-Americans know their national anthems than Americans - how many singers have flubbed our national anthem? More than I can count.

Finally, the pledge of allegiance is hardly a national tradition and since we live in America, I don't have to have deep established religious/moral convictions to not say it. I just don't have to believe in it for any reason.

[Anonymous]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q2BfqDUPL1I