Posted on 10/15/2001 7:45:24 AM PDT by Jean S
Hundreds of people are expected to descend on a 5 p.m. Monday meeting of the Madison School Board to register their opinions on a controversial policy regarding the Pledge of Allegiance.
In anticipation of big crowds, the district late last week moved the meeting from the Doyle Administration Building to the larger auditorium at Memorial High School, 201 S. Gammon Road, which seats about 800 people.
"I think we've become a lightning rod for a lot of frustration built up around the World Trade Center tragedy and terrorist attacks," said Calvin Williams, board president. "There's no place to focus all of that frustration and anger, so if you spot something perceived as unpatriotic, regardless of what the true issue is, people are reacting."
Williams was part of the 3-2 majority that voted last week to instruct schools to use only instrumental versions of the national anthem - not the pledge - as the way to comply with a new state patriotism law. That law requires all schools to offer either the pledge or anthem every day in grades one to 12. Students cannot be forced to participate.
Williams, Bill Keys and Carol Carstensen said their support of the motion was intended to reduce pressure on students uncomfortable with the pledge's "one nation under God" line or the lyrics of the anthem, which some object to as militaristic.
Ruth Robarts and Shwaw Vang voted against the motion, saying that while they shared some of their colleagues' concerns about the coercive nature of the state law, they preferred other ways to implement it. Ray Allen and Juan Jose Lopez were absent and say they do not support the board's decision.
The policy unleashed a national backlash, with the district receiving at least 18,000 e-mails and 2,000 phone calls as of Friday afternoon, said district spokesman Ken Syke.
Gov. Scott McCallum denounced the board as a group of "oddballs," and civic leaders said the city's reputation could be irreparably harmed.
"This has turned into a disaster," Allen said. "People have been calling us every name but the names our mothers gave us."
Allen said he'll push for a motion at Monday's meeting that requires the offering of the pledge in district schools.
But Keys, who authored the controversial policy last week, said he stands behind it and feels no anxiety over the criticism he may receive at the meeting.
"I firmly believe that I'm right, so therefore I'm not worried about it," he said.
Williams said security will be increased for the meeting, although he declined to specify how. "We have some zealous people on both sides of this issue," he said. "We're not expecting anything, but we don't want to have our heads in the sand."
During the public comment period, speakers are expected to each get three minutes, which is the traditional format for board meetings, said Superintendent Art Rainwater.
Depending on how many people sign up to speak, the time could be shortened if the board votes to do so, Syke said. "If they stay at three minutes, they can only hear about 20 per hour," he said.
State Journal staff writer Lisa Schuetz contributed to this report.
This guy couldn't buy a clue if his pockets were stuffed with $20 bills.
Time for a recall, those of you in Madistan with any amount of sense remaining. Take back your city and the institution which "educates" your children!
And some including your mother, no doubt.
In other words, patriots are not only offensive, but stupid as well.
he said, turning down the blindfold and cigarette."
BUMP TO A GREAT FREEP
Think of the weekend these board people had! LOL
The pledge can be recited in an orderly and understandable fashion, in about 10 seconds or so. That would be at least 15 times in 3 minutes.
That's how I would use my 3 minutes, unless of course I could sing, in which case I would throw in one round of that "militaristic" old favorite "The Star Spangled Banner".
This is not unlike the 'appropriation' by another group of stuckup, elitists of a big chunk of the downtown for the ARTS DISTRICT, most of whom applaud the school boards decision. Nevermind, that they drove out, intimidated, threatened, or 'condemned' perfectly functioning businesses that were enjoyed by an overwhelming majority of people who wished to enjoy them.
This is consistent behavior with those who like to think of themselves as Madison's upper crust. These same people caused the 'Monona Terrace' - a mass of concrete that replaced a great lakeside park anybody could enjoy with a parking ramp/convention center complete with guards, security cameras & visible foot patrols of police so the elites won't have to be annoyed by the presence of people belonging to the common ruck.
In short, the half-wits & former sixties 'activists' who have enacted that baloney so recently made famous (or infamous) most definitely DO NOT represent most of the fulltime, yearround residents of Madison, Wisconsin.
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