Put Out No Flags

The Nation ^ | September 20, 2001 | Katha Pollitt

[TruthShallSetYouFree]

While the issue of The Flag has come front and center over these last few horrible days, I have a question for those of you who still have children in public schools. Do they still perform The Pledge of Allegiance every day, or has that nasty "under God" phrase given the ACLU their weapon to have it removed?

[Big Guy and Rusty 99]

I didn't intend that comment to the poster. Sorry for any confusion.

[RogueIsland]

Perhaps Katha could lead a love-in in Kabul. I'm sure she will find the Taliban very receptive.

[TKEman]

I tell you, once the shoot starts, these peaceniks had better keep their protests peaceful. If they go the anarchist route, then I will go that route also. These hypocrites.

[surfer]

This person is raising children...

[SuperLuminal]

Straight out of the drivel that the NEA is force-feeding the inmates of the government K-12 asylums.

[Osinski]

Dingbat with no boundaries...probably on some anti-depressant so she doesn't have to think about her life.

[Annabel_Lee]

Do they still perform The Pledge of Allegiance every day, or has that nasty "under God" phrase given the ACLU their weapon to have it removed?

Yes, in the public school system (I live one county north of Los Angeles) every classroom has a flag and the Pledge of Allegiance is said at the beginning of the day. It might surprise you that many patriotic songs are sung at their assemblies. My second grader has taught me some!

Not all "Government Schools" are bad. I think the trick is to be very involved. Know what is going on. Attend PTA meetings and volunteer in the classrooms. In short, become one of those annoying parents that are always hanging around the school!

I have a Brownie troop also and we say the Pledge of Allegiance before we say the Girl Scout Pledge.

[TruthShallSetYouFree]

Good to hear. Do they say the words "under God" or has Ron Kuby and his ilk forced them to go without it?

[Annabel_Lee]

LOL

no..."under God" is still there!

[Annabel_Lee]

Here is one of the songs my daughter learned last year in music class,(She was in 1st grade then.)

I'm proud to be an American
where at least I know I'm free,
And I won't forget the men who died
who gave that right to me,
And I"ll gladly stand up next to you
and defend her still today,
There is no doubt that I love this land,
God Bless the U.S.A.

At "Government School" no less!

[Verginius Rufus]

Marty Peretz's rag is The New Republic. The main difference between the two is The New Republic is printed on slick paper and The Nation is not, but The Nation is even further to the left, and is pro-Palestinian whereas The New Republic is very pro-Israel. Both are extremely vitriolic.

[FreedomPoster]

Here is one of the songs my daughter learned last year in music class,(She was in 1st grade then.)

God bless Lee Greenwood! That's an encouraging thing to hear, especially coming from a government school.

[TruthShallSetYouFree]

Glad to hear it, Annabel Lee. Things are good, in the Kingdom by the Sea.

[Annabel_Lee]

Yes! You are the Grand Prize Winner, Truth!
You're the first person to even make reference to my name and the poem by Poe.
Congratulations

[mountaineer]

This idiot has no understanding of the flag or history. She's stuck in the 60's.

Isn't it amazing how these leftover 60s radicals are unaware that the flag also stands for ending the Third Reich and freeing Jews from concentration camps?

[Teacher317]

the flag also stands for ending the Third Reich and freeing Jews from concentration camps

Well, we can't catch 'em all, but here are a few other things that 'hated' flag stands for...

It stands for Freedom, and the rights of the individual, and helping out every other nation on earth whether we 'like' them or not, and for liberating many millions from the heel of tyrants, and for supreme power NOT being used to annex every neighboring nation, and for a strong desire for Justice, and for inalienable rights, and for the protection of innocents, and for union of many states working together to become greater than the sum of the parts, and for striving for excellence in any endeavor, and for unprecedented military successes, and for opportunity, and for the right to have low opinions of the very same flag...

This is what the flag represents, no matter what others think, especially those who want to find ANY reason to spit on it, despise it, trash it, demean it, and ignore its total history.

Paraphrasing pop culture's "don't hate the playa"... don't hate the flag, hate the (very few) sad things done under her protective shadow.

[ArGee]

My daughter, who goes to Stuyvesant High School only blocks from the World Trade Center, thinks we should fly an American flag out our window.

There is definately hope for the next generation!

Shalom.

[mountaineer]

Amen.

[maxwell]

Ah well, she's enlightened. Would that God shall confer on us the same depths of enlightenment someday.

But 'til then...

LET'S ROLL!!!

Screw her. Stupid ol' b!tch. What is she, citizen of the world or something? She takes for granted what others give their lives for... I have a good buddy in the Air Force who's being deployed to Saudi Arabia today. He could die over there. I have nothing to say to those who won't support our troops except "Go f*** yourself, you piece of trash."