interesting

Just over a year ago I made a post called "Rage Against the Machine" about the rote recitation of the pledge of allegience. In it I said:

But mainly, it’s the whole concept of making young children put their little hands over their hearts and well, pledge their allegience to a flag that is silly and slightly offensive. Putting aside the fact that flag worship is idolatrious, the idea of making children swear themselves to a country is absurd. There is nothing inherently wrong with pledging your own allegience to a particular country but one must do so under one’s own free will. Five year olds don’t know any better and - no matter the country - it is a propagandic form of subtle brainwashing when children are made to pledge themselves to it in a ritual manner. There is also nothing inherently wrong with having pride in one’s own country. But that pride should come from the way the country works for its citizens, not because it was ingrained into a person from a very young age to love it, no questions asked.

It sounds like someone has been reading my blog:

Student leaders at a California college have touched off a furor by banning the Pledge of Allegiance at their meetings, saying they see no reason to publicly swear loyalty to God and the U.S. government.

[...]

"That ('under God') part is sort of offensive to me," student trustee Jason Bell, who proposed the ban, told Reuters. "I am an atheist and a socialist, and if you know your history, you know that 'under God' was inserted during the McCarthy era and was directly designed to destroy my ideology."

Bell said the ban largely came about because the trustees didn't want to publicly vow loyalty to the American government before their meetings. "Loyalty ought to be something the government earns through performance, not through reciting a pledge," he said.

Ok, I'm sure he wasn't reading my blog but I found it amusing. I also thought this was a pretty brave public stand given how this issue inflames all sorts of tempers. Speaking of which, one student had this to say:

"America is the one thing I'm passionate about and I can't let them take that away from me," 18-year-old political science major Christine Zoldos told Reuters.

"The fact that they have enough power to ban one of the most valued traditions in America is just horrible," Zoldos said, adding she would attend every board meeting to salute the flag.

"...Since I found Serenity, but you can't take the sky from me..." Oh, sorry. Anyway, what? They aren't taking "America" from you! And this ban only applies to the trustee meetings, not any other group on campus. For chrissakes, get a damn grip. The Coast Community College District, when asked about this, essentially said: "We don't care, we aren't going to force them to pledge. Wev.".



(I pledge allegience to this cross-post)