How About That Boy Who Won't Say the Pledge of Allegiance?

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SK_B3RbgV18

Isn't he articulate? Isn't he right? Doesn't he sound like an Aspie?

I really liked his dad's reactions, too.

How does this make news? They can't force kids to recite the pledge of allegiance, and some groups have been refusing to do it for years. I know the Quakers (Religious Society of Friends) don't recite it, and I think the Jehovah's Witnesses consider it idolatry.. There are always a few kids who don't do it for religious reasons.

No but under law they can make you stand up for the pledge. They simply cannot force you to say it.

Since the teacher was too busy trying to get students to stand up when I was in High School, I can up with my own little pledge that I would recite. Some of my fellow students heard it (including Obama's deputy press secretary) but the teacher either never heard it or never reprimanded me for it.

I hope that if I have a little boy, he'll be just like the boy in the video! So articulate and logical!

Eventually this kid is gonna learn that "freedom" is a very loose term in this country. After all the only reason why America was even made to begin with was a group of Christians was p*ssed off at another group of Christians. It had nothing to do with races, gays, atheists or any of that. We could stand to be better than that but that's the cold hard reality of it.

I cant believe that kid told the teacher to "go jump off a bridge" over a pledge. Okay, you dont have to take the pledge...that's no excuse to mouth off to your teacher like that. Then again, the only kind of kid I could imagine make a smart ass remark to the teacher like that is an aspie.

I cant imagine how crazy the media is gonna be with this story.

I've always thought it was stupid that they make kids recite the pledge every day, I think that they should at least wait until the kids are in high school where they can actually understand what it is that they're actually saying, and then make their choice to recite it. I remember for many years saying the pledge religiously at the beginning of the school day without actually understanding the significance of it.

I remember one day in high school where a teacher reprimanded me for not standing up during the pledge, I asked her to point out the part of the first amendment that cancels out the right to not say the pledge, and she got angry and started going on about how people died for me to have the rights I have. My response was "after all these people died for me to have the right to express myself, wouldn't it be disrespectful of me to ignore that right? The way I see it, what good is having the freedom of expression if you're not going to use it?" The teacher sent me to the principal's office, after explaining my point of view, the principal agreed with me.

Here's the Daily Show covering this story

Last edited by normally_impaired on 20 Nov 2009, 5:40 pm, edited 1 time in total.

he sounds like he truly understands the constitution rather than this fellow

mrvalero305 (5 hours ago) Show Hide -3 Marked as spam
Reply f**k that kid, if he hates americas ways so much then move the f**k out and go live in canada b***h!

I'm dmx512rob, the guy who responded to mrvalero305 by saying:
"You certainly are a patriotic American, you're so patriotic that you seem to be completely ignoring the freedoms that your country was founded on. Thousands of people have died over the years for us to have these freedoms, thousands more are dying in Iraq as we speak for us to have these freedoms, this kid is proudly using that freedom, many Americans could learn a lesson from this kid. "

Nope. At the end of that tape, he said "liberty and justice for all" means "Everyone should be able to marry."

Those two thoughts are not related.

You sure? I think they are totally related. It is unjust to take away one's liberty to marry who they choose.

Yes, I am sure. The guarding of "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness (ownership of property)" has nothing to do with the recognition of civil contracts. But beyond all of that, anybody can marry anybody as long as each accepts the other, and the state has nothing to say about that unless those two people then also want the alleged "benefit" of having the state as the principal party in that civil contract where at that point the principal party (state) has the seeming "power" to call all the shots.

If gay people want the "right" to have their marriages recognized by the state, they simply need to convince the state it will benefit from doing that for them!

The two thoughts are related

The freedom to marry falls under liberty. And since it's just that all people should be able to marry, you might argue it also falls under justice.

He just gave universal freedom to marry as an example of something that "liberty and justice for all" entails. He didn't say that the phrase meant marriage freedom.

I would have to go listen to the tape again to know what was actually said, but refusing to stand and/or to say "The Pledge" because some state does not want to recognize non-heterosexual marriage is silly ... and the media will play on that silliness to help keep people confused.



In context, that mentioned "liberty" contrasts with governmental "slavery", not with the state refusing to enter into a citizen-solicited civil contract. But, please know I am far from being any kind of lawyer. I am simply trying to help people see we human beings *preceded* the state and can do precisely as we please as long as we do not deprive any other human being of "life, liberty or the pursuit of happiness (ownership of property)" via things like murder, confinement or theft.

yes, yes, no

I am surprised. Why do you say "no" to AS/HFA? I thought I saw a "little professor", and his left hand was moving almost constantly.