Save the Children from the Michelle Malkin!

POSTED BY: AnotherSky
UPDATED: Friday, September 12, 2025 21:25
VIEWED: 10599
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DARKJESTER

Saturday, October 10, 2009 3:43 PM

DAMN good point Frem - 'course, most folks don't see kids as actually having a voice in such things, they're not old enough to understand......

Me, I stopped saying the Pledge of Allegiance in '76, in 7th grade, but for religious reasons - and to be honest, more than a little bit just to be different. Wasn't a huge deal, because the area I grew up in had a lot of pacifist Christians, and I wasn't the first or only to stop saying it.

MAL "You only gotta scare him."
JAYNE "Pain is scary..."

http://www.fireflytalk.com - Big Damn Podcast

FREMDFIRMA

Saturday, October 10, 2009 5:46 PM

My issue with it, DJ, was the hypocrisy, even if I couldn't spell it at the time (I was eight) I cursed sure knew what it was.

I hated "their god" with a rabid passion since as a child I saw right through all the lies and most of the nastiest behavior I saw was on behalf of the churchies, all the while them pretending this was something other people did and they didn't do those things... it wasn't till many years later I could even grudgingly admit not all of em were evil, although having become a Maltheist I am unlikely to believe their deity ain't.

When I learned many years later that the phrase in question was added for nefarious reasons as a social and political control vector, and just how badly it violated one of our nations core principles, I felt much better about that refusal despite it being done in blind hatred at the time.

That whole "liberty and justice for all" thing set me off as well, cause as a child, I was oh so very well aware that ain't true, ESPECIALLY not for kids, who have no rights, no liberty, and most certainly no justice - when I became an adult I vowed to never, EVER forget this, and I haven't - but even adults, at least those without money, social or political influence, have few rights and little justice themselves.

Wasn't till I was twenty something that it came clear to me that this and other of our national principles are an ideal, and one worth striving for - but to pretend we're ALREADY there, that's just a lie, and to buy into it is an excuse to not keep moving forward - civilization was a first step, not an end point, you know ?

So while mentally, I might not have been able to articulate the rationale behind that refusal, my heart knew why all along.

I was a strange kid anyway, social feral and extreme latchkey child, forced by circumstances into the role of an adult and managing the household while our single mother busted ass to keep the bills paid, so even before I reached double digits in age I was something of a cynic, and having served an adults role for nearly a decade while being treated as less than a housepet by the rest of society played a substantial role in forging my character and personality as an adult.

I *never* treat children as subhuman, and watching society do so always drives me into choke-a-bitch frenzy, prolly always will.

There's been progress, ISAC, CAICIA, many others, even a full on political action committee (PAC) dedicated soley to giving a voice to the otherwise voiceless.
http://www.protect.org/

Never quite understood the level of denial and suppression it's gotta take for children who were so ignored, rejected and mistreated, to become adults who pretend that didn't happen and then perpetuate the cycle right on down to their own kids - that's insane, isn't it ?

-Frem

ETA: Btw, nice to see some of y'all lurkers step in and offer comment, so welcome to the shark infested waters, DJ.

KWICKO

Saturday, October 10, 2009 6:18 PM

Quote:

ETA: Btw, nice to see some of y'all lurkers step in and offer comment, so welcome to the shark infested waters, DJ.

Yup, always good to have some fresh blood in the water.

Welcome to you, too, AnotherSky.

DREAMTROVE

Sunday, October 11, 2009 1:02 AM

I only went to 4 years of school, but never said the pledge. I grew up with the Vietnam War and the Nuclear Arms race. It was hard to pledge to that, even as a lil kid. I actually remember going home and look up "allegiance" thinking "better know what this is before I pledge it." I realized then that I couldn't do it, because I took promises very seriously. Still do.

ANOTHERSKY

Tuesday, October 13, 2009 3:45 AM

Singing the praises of a country or an ideal is fundamentally different than praising one man.

Because we can not all be Barak Hussein Obama in our glorious future.

Germany

USSR

And do you recognize this country?

Glad to be welcomed. This is my first foray into sharky waters. I hope this forum sticks around.

--
Going for a ride.

PERFESSERGEE

Tuesday, October 13, 2009 7:27 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by Fremdfirma:
[B

-Frem

ETA: Btw, nice to see some of y'all lurkers step in and offer comment, so welcome to the shark infested waters, DJ.

I'll take you up on that frem, and de-lurk. I told Chrisisall that I'd start posting again anyway. I think the manufactured outrage is just that - manufactured hysteria from people who didn't say diddly when kids sang in praise of Bush after Katrina (I must say that my mind boggled when I heard about that - PRAISE FOR THE KATRINA RESPONSE? How absurd is that!). My response to these hysterical fools is: take three deep breaths and get a life (and a clue too, while you're at it).

I'm with ya on the pledge of allegiance, too. I'll be damned if I'll pledge allegiance to a piece of cloth. My allegiance is to my country, of which I am mighty proud. I also happen to be proud of the flag and happily sing the national anthem when it's appropriate, but I won't even stand up for the pledge, let alone say it. I've traveled a lot in the third world and I know how good we have it here in the States, and it chaps my #ss to see so-called patriots, who live in real luxury, acting in the most anti-constitutional and anti-freedom ways (like forcing the pledge on kids and forcing their religious views on everybody). GRRRRR!

/rant

perfessergee

CHRISISALL

Tuesday, October 13, 2009 7:48 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by perfessergee:
I'm with ya on the pledge of allegiance, too. I'll be damned if I'll pledge allegiance to a piece of cloth.

E- Plebnista.
Your tongue would surely turn to fire.

The laughing Chrisisall

STORYMARK

Tuesday, October 13, 2009 7:55 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by perfessergee:
I think the manufactured outrage is just that - manufactured hysteria from people who didn't say diddly when kids sang in praise of Bush after Katrina....

Abso-fragin-lutely.

The same folks organized a protest outside the school. When asked to move the protest - so as not to scare the children there - and instead bring it to the school board, which actually has the power to change things, and is the correct place to bring such grievances - they declined.

They get better press by harassing children than acting like adults.

"I thoroughly disapprove of duels. If a man should challenge me, I would take him kindly and forgivingly by the hand and lead him to a quiet place and kill him."

CHRISISALL

Tuesday, October 13, 2009 8:04 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by Storymark:

The same folks organized a protest outside the school. When asked to move the protest - so as not to scare the children there - and instead bring it to the school board, which actually has the power to change things, and is the correct place to bring such grievances - they declined.

Of course.

Tantrums are for public display.

The laughing Chrisisall

FREMDFIRMA

Tuesday, October 13, 2009 8:11 PM

Well, I don't do patriotic displays, the anthems or none of that - although I do think all american flagpoles oughta have an extra two feet painted yellow to raise the flag INTO when someone pushes us, as a gesture of our free defiance.

And, well, imma Anarchist so you can't really expect much in the way of nationalism from me...

But you know, the concept, the IDEA - of america, as our founders expressed, the noble goals they set which we've tried and often failed to live up to, I am very strongly with that, and with the idea of moving towards those ideals and trying to live up to them, instead of casting them aside as outdated and quaint relics of a bygone era in favor of something that looks a whole damned lot like Neo-Feudalism to me.

So no, I don't do all those nationalistic displays, but yeah, I believe in america, the ideal, and I will stand forth for it, sure.

Bill Murray says it best though

-F

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