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Title: Air Force Veteran Angry That Daughter's School Is Asking Her to Recite the Pledge of Allegiance
Source:
Fixed Noise
URL Source: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2011/10/2 ... ters-schools-to-recite-pledge/
Published: Oct 24, 2011
Author: Fixed Noise
Post Date: 2011-10-24 18:45:54 by Brian S
Keywords: None
Views: 18190
Comments: 14
An Air Force veteran is outraged that her daughter’s school recently announced that students will be asked to recite the Pledge of Allegiance at the start of each day, the Seattle Times reports. Haley Sides, 26, moved to Seattle after four years in the Air Force so her 6-year-old daughter could attend John Stanford International School, which promotes the same multiculturalism that Sides says she has tried to instill in her half-Jamaican daughter, according to the paper. But Sides became angry when the school’s new principal announced that students will be asked to recite the Pledge of Allegiance each day before the start of classes. The policy, which has long been mandated by district policy but not traditionally observed at John Stanford , will start Monday. "It pains me to think that at a school that emphasizes thinking globally we would institute something that makes our children think that this country alone is where their allegiance lies," said Sides. "This has no educational value for young children. Absolutely none." Sides started crying as she described why she is so opposed to the pledge being recited in her daughter's school. The explanation goes back to her partner, a Jamaican-born Navy serviceman who died just seven months after obtaining U.S. citizenship — and when his daughter was 18 months old. According to the paper, the pledge will be read over the PA system every Monday and recited in individual classrooms the other days of the week. Students who don't want to participate will be allowed to sit or stand respectfully. Many parents said they had never really thought about the practice before. John Stanford, which offers dual-language immersion programs in Spanish and Japanese, has traditionally let teachers decide whether or not to do the pledge, said Kelly Aramaki, a former principal who moved to Beacon Hill International School this year. But Aramaki's replacement, Jesely Alvarez, decided to change that. In a pair of letters sent to parents this week, Alvarez acknowledged some opposition from teachers but said that after a month of internal debate it was time "to move forward" in "following state law." At John Stanford's weekly coffee hour Friday, the pledge was a hot topic of conversation among the dozen or so parents in attendance. Janet Robinson, the PTSA treasurer, argued that its recitation would be an opportunity to talk about an important representation of American freedom and liberty. "It's a symbol of our country," she said.
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#2. To: Brian S (#0)
Is this the dumb bitch? Haley Sides S Lane St Seattle, WA (206) 397-4750 Take your multiculturalism and stick it up your ass.
Gene Healy is senior editor at the Cato Institute. More by Gene Healy Very little, as it turns out. From its inception, in 1892, the Pledge has been a slavish ritual of devotion to the state, wholly inappropriate for a free people. It was written by Francis Bellamy, a Christian Socialist pushed out of his post as a Baptist minister for delivering pulpit-pounding sermons on such topics as "Jesus the Socialist." Bellamy was devoted to the ideas of his more-famous cousin Edward Bellamy, author of the 1888 utopian novel Looking Backward. Looking Backward describes the future United States as a regimented worker's paradise where everyone has equal incomes, and men are drafted into the country's "industrial army" at the age of 21, serving in the jobs assigned them by the state. Bellamy's novel was extremely popular, selling more copies than other any 19th century American novel except Uncle Tom's Cabin. Bellamy's book inspired a movement of "Nationalist Clubs," whose members campaigned for a government takeover of the economy. A few years before he wrote the Pledge of Allegiance, Francis Bellamy became a founding member of Boston's first Nationalist Club. http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=3296 You do know I hope that as the quoted material shows, the author of the pledge was a die hard socialist. One does not have to slavishly say this pledge to be a good American who loves her or his country. Myself, I never said it in high school along with a few others in my class. But I will insist the flag is properly folded and have stopped people from burning or desecrating it. I also broke into a home and stole a large, very nice 48 star flag that was going to be stomped on and burned at a demonstration the next day. (It was all I took.) I still have it. And it is folded properly and I keep it safe and protected. It was made just before WW II and didn't deserve to be treated that way. I'll do that, but I don't have to posture to anyone by saying that pledge. I raised my right hand each time I was sworn into another enlistment in the Regular Army or national Guard swaring ti preserve defend and protect the U.S. Constitution. I also saluted it in the service whenever protocol called for me to do so. The pledge is something politicians posture about. I want nothing to do with it.
The pledge is something politicians posture about. I want nothing to do with it. ;} Let's talk about why OWSers are being arrested for practicing free speech in Oakland. Fuck your patriotic posturing in the meantime....;}
The Return of Barbarism How imperialism corrupts the soul of America Justin Raimondo
disgusting and I'll have nothing to do with it. The slide into hell isn't fast enough for the USSA. We have to start running down the slope as well....;}
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#5. To: A K A Stone (#2)
It's probably too much to ask politicians to reflect a little before they lunge for a political hot-button issue. But any conservatives so inclined should think about what they're defending. What's so conservative about the Pledge?
#7. To: Ferret Mike (#5)
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#8. To: All (#7)
#9. To: All (#8)
Replies to Comment # 9.
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