Lenin's Law
10th November 2006, 06:06
As a teacher, it's always disgusted me how it is near-mandatory in most schools to stand up for the pledge of allegiance. In mine, you don't have to actually take part in the pledge, but you do have to stand up when told and remain "respectful." It's a lesson in obedience and submissiveness to the state and authority than anything else.
So this article caught my eye: a student group at a California college voted to ban the pledge of allegiance at their meetings. A few of them were even wearing "revolutionary style berets" indicating hopefully some leftist politics.
The article of course, is typically bourgeois and reactionary: it quotes some right-wing zealot about how some imperialist state is "the only thing she's passionate about" which if true indicates he lives a rather sad life. They devoted 3 paragraphs to her and quoted her twice, more than any other person including the people that we assumed the article was actually about! On the page itself, it shows a picture of new US citizens pledging allegiance carrying American flags in their arms, which has nothing to do with the issue at hand.
Anyway, I am glad to see that some students, on their own initiative are starting to challenge what goes in their schools. Maybe a few other rev-lefters can use this thread to tell us stories about some kind of disobedience they had in refusing to make "the Pledge" at their school.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20061110/us_nm/life_pledge_dc
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - 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.
The move by Orange Coast College student trustees, the latest clash over patriotism and religion in American schools, has infuriated some of their classmates -- prompting one young woman to loudly recite the pledge in front of the board on Wednesday night in defiance of the rule.
"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.
The move was lead by three recently elected student trustees, who ran for office wearing revolutionary-style berets and said they do not believe in publicly swearing an oath to the American flag and government at their school. One student trustee voted against the measure, which does not apply to other student groups or campus meetings.
The ban follows a 2002 ruling by a federal appeals court in San Francisco that said forcing school children to recite the pledge was unconstitutional because of the phrase "under God." The U.S. Supreme Court struck down the ruling on procedural grounds but left the door open for another challenge.
"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.
Martha Parham, a spokeswoman for the Coast Community College District, said her office had no standing on the student board and took no position on the flag salute ban.
"If their personal belief is that they don't want to say the Pledge of Allegiance, the district certainly isn't going to dictate what they do," she said.
More than 28,000 students attend the community college, located in conservative Orange County, California, south of Los Angeles.
So this article caught my eye: a student group at a California college voted to ban the pledge of allegiance at their meetings. A few of them were even wearing "revolutionary style berets" indicating hopefully some leftist politics.
The article of course, is typically bourgeois and reactionary: it quotes some right-wing zealot about how some imperialist state is "the only thing she's passionate about" which if true indicates he lives a rather sad life. They devoted 3 paragraphs to her and quoted her twice, more than any other person including the people that we assumed the article was actually about! On the page itself, it shows a picture of new US citizens pledging allegiance carrying American flags in their arms, which has nothing to do with the issue at hand.
Anyway, I am glad to see that some students, on their own initiative are starting to challenge what goes in their schools. Maybe a few other rev-lefters can use this thread to tell us stories about some kind of disobedience they had in refusing to make "the Pledge" at their school.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20061110/us_nm/life_pledge_dc
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - 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.
The move by Orange Coast College student trustees, the latest clash over patriotism and religion in American schools, has infuriated some of their classmates -- prompting one young woman to loudly recite the pledge in front of the board on Wednesday night in defiance of the rule.
"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.
The move was lead by three recently elected student trustees, who ran for office wearing revolutionary-style berets and said they do not believe in publicly swearing an oath to the American flag and government at their school. One student trustee voted against the measure, which does not apply to other student groups or campus meetings.
The ban follows a 2002 ruling by a federal appeals court in San Francisco that said forcing school children to recite the pledge was unconstitutional because of the phrase "under God." The U.S. Supreme Court struck down the ruling on procedural grounds but left the door open for another challenge.
"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.
Martha Parham, a spokeswoman for the Coast Community College District, said her office had no standing on the student board and took no position on the flag salute ban.
"If their personal belief is that they don't want to say the Pledge of Allegiance, the district certainly isn't going to dictate what they do," she said.
More than 28,000 students attend the community college, located in conservative Orange County, California, south of Los Angeles.