Is that The Bill of Rights or toliet paper.....
Ask the average member of the Christian Coalition if this was OK, what do you think your answer will be?
Thier answer of course, "patriotism should be compulsory" -- everyone knows that's the answer to all that ails our country today. A simple Google search for "pledge of allegiance", mandatory turns up over 40,000 entries. I recall Colorado attempting to make the pledge mandatory, although students could opt out (how does that make it mandatory?), but teachers did not have that option. Such compulsory recitation will automatically get this country back into shape and solve all our woes.
This is, of course, bullshit: no one ever became more patriotic or a better citizen by having a pledge or anthem jammed down their throats. Instead, as the judge who issued the restraining order in the Colorado case correctly stated, it simply becomes a matter of rote at that point and loses all meaning. It was sort of like when my step-father forced me to say grace at the dinner table: I didn't believe any of it, but he insisted so all I did was go through the motions without giving it a thought. Did that make me a better Christian? Quite the opposite: I'm now a fervent atheist, and I believe part of that comes from the fact that I saw the prayers and rituals for what they actually were when I was forced to say or perform them -- window dressing for a myth.
The problem with these "superpatriots" is that they hold the flag in the same regard as the Bible, with the same religious fervor and lack of thought behind their actions. These are people who will stick a "made-in-China" magnetic flag they bought at WalMart on their minivan and call themselves "good Americans," without even knowing the meaning of the term. These are the people who flunked basic history and civics: Nazis required 100% enrollment in the National Socialists party, and the Soviet Union was the same way with the Communist Party. Both required blind allegiance, both sought to punish those who failed to comply, and ultimately both systems failed miserably. What a lot of people seem to be forgetting is that the men who founded this country would never have stood for this. They in fact, put protocols in place that assues Jay's right to do this. That is why he was suspended for videotaping on school grounds. It is all they could do, they couldn't arrest him, and couldn't punish him for not reciting. The shame here is many believe this teacher was in the right. (no pun intended)
I believe just the opposite (something the Founding Fathers apparently felt strongly about as well), and that is we should be free to express ourselves as we see fit, and not conform to some kind of government-imposed brain-washing. Because if there is one thing people all over the globe cannot stand, it is being ordered to do something, whether they agree with it or not (yes, this holds true in the military as well -- they just have to hide thier feelings and opinions better).
Pride in one's country is not wrapped up in a red, white, and blue piece of cloth, but instead it's something deeper. I have no problem with someone refusing to stand during the national anthem, saying the Pledge of Allegiance, or even burning a flag -- it's their choice to look like fools, and I tend to ignore fools. It's when they no longer have any of those options that I will begin to worry.
Link of the Day: www.pcmech.com
posted by Rightcoast at 6:44 PM
3 comments
I'm a sucker for a cool looking case (hell, I make my own!) and this is one of the coolest looking cases I've seen to date. Did I mention it's also very functional?
