Kid Suspended For Refusing to Say the Pledge.

[s_stabeler]

Which smacks of mind control if you ask me. I for one prefer to have my mind free to myself and not run by some government entity under the guise of "patriotism."

it WAS supposed to be mind control. It was created not that long before WW2, because the higher-ups in the government feared a communist takeover of the US. Ther idea was that it would discourage communist thinking.

[lordlundar]

I have never understood the pledge thing and always found it kind of disturbing to be blunt. That there are people who think a child should be punished for not reciting allegience to their country every morning is downright frightening.

It's a daily loyalty test. As stabler pointed out this came about just as WW2 had finished up and the fear of communism was looming. It was in the minds of a number of people in power of the old phrase "if you're not with us you're against us" with no middle ground. It did die down after the Berlin wall came down and the Soviet Union disbanded but some people, if for no other reason than to have an enemy to fight choose to insist on the loyalty tests.

Sadly Putin's actions as of late hasn't helped matters any.

[s_stabeler]

It's a daily loyalty test. As stabler pointed out this came about just as WW2 had finished up and the fear of communism was looming. It was in the minds of a number of people in power of the old phrase "if you're not with us you're against us" with no middle ground. It did die down after the Berlin wall came down and the Soviet Union disbanded but some people, if for no other reason than to have an enemy to fight choose to insist on the loyalty tests.

Sadly Putin's actions as of late hasn't helped matters any.

it was before WW2, actually. the bellamy saltuie was dropped when hitler turned out to be so evil. ( which makes you suspect where they got the idea from...)

[HYHYBT]

Why? His mustache style and the swastika were likewise tainted, permanently so far, despite his having nothing to do with their origin.

[lordlundar]

it was before WW2, actually. the bellamy saltuie was dropped when hitler turned out to be so evil. ( which makes you suspect where they got the idea from...)

I was actually referring to the forced requirement to the loyalty pledge, not the salute. It's akin to how someone who has the flag plastered their house but will fight any effort to improve the country is somehow more patriotic than a serving soldier or public servant who doesn't.

[Rapscallion]

I have never understood the pledge thing and always found it kind of disturbing to be blunt. That there are people who think a child should be punished for not reciting allegience to their country every morning is downright frightening.

I think you may have missed the clause of the pledge that says it only works for twenty-four hours. That's why it needs to be repeated so often. Stands to reason, yes?

Rapscallion

[Dreamstalker]

Every so often something comes up on the local news about some group or another protesting the use (requirement in that one gets detention if it's not recited) of the pledge in school. Sometimes the 'under God' wording is brought up; my mom doesn't believe that wording was a 1950's addition because she always said it that way....of course, because you entered a Catholic school years after it was added. My dad knows when it was added and why (and remembers the change).

According to her, requiring the pledge is not a violation of any right (kids don't have the right to decline anyway, but in the same vein they don't understand what they're pledging to so it could be seen as coercion). While I do see her point ('under god' doesn't specify which god...then why did I get yelled at in 6th grade for saying 'under Cthulhu'?), IMO there's still something wrong with a daily loyalty oath for schoolkids in a country based (at least for now) on freedom.

[Greenday]

I have a family-friend who posts once a week on Facebook about how "under God" should be part of the PoA and how America is a nation built upon Christianity and how Godless we are becoming and how horrible that is.

You're religion can suck it.
You're God can suck it.
I'm not pledging allegiance to the flying spaghetti monster or God or whatever you believe him to be.