Posted on 11/16/2008 7:22:05 AM PST by andrew roman
There is a passionate debate going on in the small Vermont town of Woodbury, regarding the Pledge of Allegiance – but it isn't what you may think.
No, this isn’t your garden-variety, everyday, atheistic attempt to remove the “offensive recitation” from school, as we’ve seen on numerous occasions before.
This debate has a new twist.
It isn’t a “what” issue … it’s a “where” issue.
Specifically, it concerns whether or not the Pledge of Allegiance can be said in the classrooms of the school or if it needs to be done in a different place within the school, like the gymnasium.
It is a bitter point of contention there.
No, really.
From the Burlington Free Press:
Supporters say the classroom is the place for it, and the disagreement has fueled an increasingly acrimonious debate.
"The brouhaha in the Vermont school began in September, when parent Ted Tedesco began circulating petitions calling for its return as a daily practice in the 19th-century schoolhouse, which has 55 children in grades kindergarten through six.
School officials agreed to resume the pledge as a daily exercise, but not in the classroom.
"We don't want to isolate children every day in their own classroom, or make them feel they're different," said Principal Michaela Martin.
That last line is purely stunning. I required a three-man work crew to remove my jaw from the floor after reading it.
"We don't want to isolate children every day in their own classroom, or make them feel they're different."
That has to be one of the most patheticly moronic comments I've come across in a mighty long time. The absolutely fractured liberal feel-good logic of "offend no one except the majority" is spectacular to behold when displayed so prominently.
What pure idiocy.
Ms. Martin (if I may speak to her directly), separating a faction of students from others by extracting them from their own classrooms (which is in itself eerily unsettling) to recite the Pledge of Allegiance to their own country is not only frightening, but is, by definition, an act of isolating one group from another. (Please take a "duh" out of petty cash).
Besides, how in the world does reciting the Pledge of Allegiance "isolate" young American children? Doesn't it, in practice, unite them?
My Lord, what planet is this?
I digress ...
Starting last week, a sixth grade student was assigned to go around to the four classrooms before classes started, gathering up anyone who wanted to say it and then walking them up creaky wooden steps to a second-floor gymnasium, where he led them in the pledge.
Martin and School Board Chair Retta Dunlap defended the practice, saying it restored the Pledge to the school as requested, preserved the rights of students who — for political or religious reasons — didn't want to participate and gave others the opportunity to pledge their allegiance.
"I was happy to have it upstairs. I think it's important that all the kids share in it together," said parent Ellen Demers, 42.
My bellybutton is about to cave in. "I was happy to have it upstairs?"
And since when is allegiance to the United States of America a political statement?
"If you're in a classroom with 15 students and you choose not to say the Pledge, it's much more obvious than a group setting. When they're saying it in a group of 55, it's may not be so obvious. We don't want to isolate children," she (Martin) said.
Huh??!??
Let me try this again ... If you are specifically rounding up and separating, children from others, i.e. isolating them, isn't it reasonable to assume that the children in the Pledge-saying group will know who isn't participating and staying behind? Do they not have eyes? Who exactly is being protected from what?
(Tedesco) plans to continue lobbying for classroom recitation.
"There's no way a heckler's veto should abridge the constitutional rights of the majority," he said.
Talk show host Dennis Prager often recounts a conversation he had with his son immediately after O.J. Simpson was found not guilty of the brutal murders of Nicole Simpson and Ron Brown in 1995. When the verdict came in, and O.J. walked away scot-free, Dennis turned to his son and apologized for not handing off to him a better country than the one his parents gave him.
Sometimes, it is difficult to argue with that.
_
Public schools are about indoctrination, not education.
They are encouraging diversity, not unity.
One country, one flag, one language which is English, encourage Unity.
What next? It will be branded as "hate speech".
Great column, Andrew.
Metmom, I know you already pinged on this subject, but this column just takes the weasels apart.
I bet most adults today couldn’t recite The Pledge of Allegiance from memory.
Not hate speech.
It will be referred to as either a loyalty oath, or a prayer.
THOSE will get it banned.
>It will be referred to as either a loyalty oath, or a prayer.
>
>THOSE will get it banned.
The Loyalty Oath Prayer.
Let’s just combine everything to make it easier. ;)
The comments section shows how much the left wants ‘unity’.
That road goes both ways.
Not sure if there are any other groups like that, but I don't think segregating some students is necessary. We had the pledge of allegiance and saluted the flag every morning in the classroom when I was in school (back in the dark ages) in public schools in Philadelphia.
They ought to make the ones who won’t recite it stand in the hall for the whole 20 seconds it would take, then reenter the classroom. That’s a lot less dramatic than marching the Pledge kids to a central location - but I guess that’s not the effect they want...
Yeah, I'm having a problem with that lately, I keep saying "stood" instead of "stands."
You're having trouble with one word. I'm talking about adults that don't know ANY of the words! If you ask them to say the Pledge, you get a blank stare.
The Pledge of Allegiance: "I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, with liberty and justice for all".
A prayer: "Father in Heaven to Thee we pray asking Thy help day by day. In all we say and in all we do make us kind and generous too. Make us eager in our work today, make us joyous in our play. Help us always to follow the rules, Father in Heaven bless our school!"
The Preamble to the Consititution of the United States: "We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America."
Sometimes related threads provide extra insight. No problem pinging it for another perspective.
I recite the Pledge of Allegiance at least 7 times a month, followd by the Scout Law and Oath or the Cub Scout Promise. There is usually a prayer tossed in there too.
And horror of horrors, last week, I took part in a flag burning. Two of them in fact.
As I looked over at one of my fellow scout leaders, a soldier in service to our Nation, I noticed tears in his eyes as the flag was retired.
People have fought and died under the cover of our Red, White and Blue colors.
That, people of Vermont, is why we pledge allegiance to the flag of our nation. The absolute least you could do is take two minutes of precious indoctrination (I mean class) time and at least pretend you love America.
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