The Pledge of Allegiance

Jump to this site when you have a minute: http://www.parentdish.com/2009/11/13/student-braves-controversy-refuses-to-recite-pledge/7#comments. A gutsy 10 year old sat out the Pledge because he didn't believe its promise included lesbian and gay folks. In the accompanying commentary, there is a shit storm of protest from supposed grown-ups, some of whom advocate hurting the little boy.

His substitute teacher told him that she knew his parents and would have to report the incident to the principal. His response? "With all due respect, go jump off a bridge."

AOL must love these kinds of stories because they are sticky - i.e., that it keeps lots of right wing nuts on its site spewing hateful responses to what they have read, including advocating various sorts of punishments for the kid, including violence. There are some rational voices among the majority of malicious attacks, but they get drowned out.

I wonder what they would say if the kid's justification was that he believed that unborn fetuses were denied liberty and justice. He would likely be heralded by the same people seeking to lynch him. I certainly don't condone telling a teacher to jump off a bridge. On the other hand, who is doing the teaching here? It seems to me that this young guy was giving a lesson in civics and the teacher was uninformed about established constitutional law. I don't expect that teachers need to be constitutional scholars in order to command some respect in the classroom but should have enough savvy to handle the situation with more grace than she apparently did.

I reflexively said the Pledge each day for 12 years. At least half the class didn't know the word "indivisible" - a fairly important concept considering the American Civil War - and instead said "invisible". I never recall a teacher correcting the students or explaining the difference. So much for the real importance of the substance of the Pledge. Its real practical importance is to establish order, ritual and aid in classroom management in the early part of the day.

We are clearly a freer nation than the vast majority of others, but the freedom has to mean something beyond the recitation. As a gay man, my constitutional rights are more limited than they are for straight folks. I don't expect a 10 year old to fight for me. I can handle that myself.

Leave this kid alone. I have heard far too much garbage about how parents - not schools - are supposed to teach values to hear advocates of that approach attack parents whose message on values differ from theirs. We can't have it both ways. If the school forces the kid to recite the Pledge, it's teaching values which, in this case, is the value of intolerance for dissent. If that's okay with you, don't complain when the same school gives a lesson in values that differs from your own. If you think the kid is too young to understand the Pledge, its history and meaning, why are we asking him to recite it at all?