Saturday, December 04, 2004

The Pledge and The Rock......

This nation's heritage and moral backbone weren't formed in toney Manhattan apartments or on the mean streets of the urban ghetto.

Their genesis is the potato fields and creaky wooden floors of the small rural churches and schoolhouses that formed the epicenter of the community so many decades ago.

They were formed amid the sounds of "Rock of Ages" sung by the church choir at the 10 o'clock service, the smack of erasers and the chalk dust on the school house steps and the words " I Pledge Allegiance" echoing through the hallways.

Back then the school ground screams were those of laughing children playing dodge ball or perhaps an outraged youngster whose pigtails had just been dipped in the inkwell. If the crack of a rifle was heard, it was aimed at a tin can or a squirrel and not at a classmate or a teacher.

In my grammar and high school days, we recited the Pledge of Allegiance often. Not every day perhaps but certainly often enough to know the words by heart-as did all my teachers.

And to be perfectly honest with you, I never heard one single person in all those school years complain about it. Not one who felt "uncomfortable" pressured or abused of their civil rights.

Not one.

Ever..........

Even some readers who will vigorously defend the ACLU's assault on the Pledge of Allegiance took part in that brief but important ceremony without a thought or hesitation, a whimper or filing a law suit. Now however, having "seen the light" I suppose, they are active, dues paying, card carrying ACLU members.

It's truly sad, what this country has come to in allowing the courts to crush the civil rights of the 90% plus majority of American who are proud of their country and their heritage and don't mind showing it. Even in my brightest non-White Horse periods, I can't begin to figure out what has happened here, or why.

In fact I can even empathize with Michael Moore's book title "Dude,what's happened to my country?" or something like that-although we have entirely different views of the changes that have taken place.

So maybe somebody, perhaps one of the ACLU supporters on the list, can explain it to me again-exactly why it's so important to keep the Pledge of Allegiance out of our schools.

And why the student in the news story below had to work for over a year to get it re-instated.

I'm open minded and listening. I realize that I'm dumb as a hammer in that regard so please-enlighten me-just one more time. I promise to write down every word and save it for the next time I get all waxed up on the subject........

Student wins support to say Pledge
Leads campaign to institute daily ritual at his high school
© 2004 WorldNetDaily.com

(Excerpted)

A student who discovered his high school did not recite the Pledge of Allegiance has successfully led students, staff and parents through a year-long process to establish the practice.

Mike Maberry, a sophomore at Poland Regional High School in Maine, will soon be allowed to honor the U.S. flag along with other students and teachers who wish to join him, according to the Sun Journal newspaper of Lewiston, Maine.

The student plan received its final endorsement Wednesday from the school committee after a lengthy battle that began when Maberry entered as a freshman last year.

"I feel very relieved," Maberry told the Sun Journal. "And I feel very thankful for the opportunities that Poland has given me."

The school will begin its second semester with the new protocol, the paper said. During the two weeks prior to the assembly, humanities and social studies classes will use a student plan to study the Pledge, the various views and controversies surrounding it, the U.S. flag and Pledge etiquette.

"We didn't really need to vote on it," Laurie Levine, a school committee member, told the Sun Journal. "But the board certainly endorsed it. Mike is really a great kid. He is smart and articulate and respectful."

Maberry said he received harassment from peers amid a difficult process, but he also garnered support from parents and school staff. "There were some negative comments, and it was very hard to keep both sides equal," Maberry said.

After the plan passed the task force, it went through more rigorous screening and modification through a group of teachers, administrators, students and parents who meet weekly about school issues, called Poland Vision Keepers.

The final protocol makes saying the Pledge voluntary at the high school and neighboring Whittier Middle School. Prior to the first class of the day, students will be invited via the school intercom system to gather near the flag pole in the lobby to recite the Pledge.

4 comments:

bedrocktruth said...

LA, it took the kid a solid year of hard work, listening to insults and cobbling ridiculous compromises just to get PERMISSION for those who really wanted to say the Pledge to be able to do so.

That's not smoke, it's an moonbat inferno of political correctness.

bedrocktruth said...

"So we have a situation where a kid is free to worship the flag (something that I find inherently ridiculous, btw),"

I guess I failed to make my point in the first place, LA.

The fact that the school wasn't doing it already and the young man had to ask permission was the first disappointment.Then the fact that he, the student council, parents and the boards had to spend a full year hashing out the "problem" of allowing students to
express their patriotic views was a step beyond ridiculous and clearly demonstrates the effect of decades of moonbatism.

The clue is in your comment above.

Strange that you used the term "worship", by the way. I didn't even get into the "Under God" question.

The mere fact that a kid's right to say the Pledge of Allegience in school is disputed or questioned at all is a disgrace in and of itself-morally and Constitutionally.

To me that is the only FACT that's important here...

bedrocktruth said...

"He was forced to follow a set of procedures to change school policy to have an organized pledge of allegiance to the flag..."

We've worn this one out but you have effectively restated my point-essentially that the school had a policy against an organized pledge of allegiance in
the first place. Moonbat doctrine........

bedrocktruth said...

This is really bugging you for some reason. If it was a simple "error of ommission" do you have any idea why the kid would have to fight for so long and so hard to get it done?"

I don't have a link any longer. What I saved for email was just--

"Student wins support to say Pledge Leads campaign to institute daily ritual at his high school
© 2004 WorldNetDaily.com"

So it was on WorldNet-one of your favorites-sometime this year.....