I’ll admit it. I’ve never much cared for the Pledge of Allegiance.
Even when I was much younger, the idea of pledging allegiance to a government skeeved me out. Governments should get the loyalty they deserve.
Starting in my teens, when I was for any reason involved in saying the Pledge, I’d hold a clenched fist over my heart, by way of saying my allegiance had best not be betrayed – because my real allegiance is to freedom, to government of by and for a free association of equals, ruling by consent of the ruled – to the ideals, not the bureaucracy headquartered in DC with branches close to wherever you live.
But the Saint Louis Park City Council, having solved all the west-suburban town’s other problems, has voted unanimously to stop reciting the Pledge before City Council meetings.
And I’m not impressed with the rationale:
“In order to create a more welcoming environment to a diverse community, we are going to forgo saying the Pledge of Allegiance before every meeting,” said Council Member Tim Brausen. At the meeting, Brausen said members might recite it in the future if there’s an appropriate opportunity, like if Boy Scouts are there.
Any parts of that “diverse community” that are uncomfortable with the fact that this is America should perhaps re-evaluate why they’re here. Stat.
My feelings on this somewhat mirror my opinion of the athletes who choose to kneel during the National Anthem: With the Pledge, the pledge of allegiance is to the Flag, a symbol that stands for our nation and its form of Republican government. I don’t take it to represent our government, with its flawed human employees, but more what our system of government aspires to be: a government that promises “liberty and justice for all”. Do we always do that? Of course not. That’s why it’s an aspiration.
I shall quote Aaron Tippin to the hyper-sensitive council members, and the people they worry will take offense (by the way, they’ll find something else to be outraged about– it’s the only thing they’re good at): “I pledge allegiance to this Flag. And that bothers you, well that’s too bad!”
I would love so much to get rid of the Pledge, and for that matter I’d love to see Memorial Day and Armistice/Veteran’s Day returned to their proper positions as a somber day for remembrance of the dead and rejoicing at the end of hostilities. I do not know why it is so difficult to say “we can pledge allegiance to basic principles of our government, but those do not include the current form of our flag.”
Degenerates are OUtRAGED that Trump refused to hoist the fag flag at US embassies. So they are fully aware of the emotional power flags have.
It’s not just that they’re going to do this; they had to make a public refutation of our national flag in order to receive their virtue points.
I’m taking that as their promise not to fly it during CWII.
Swiftee: your question about them not flying it during CW2 made me wonder, what would they replace it with? A Live Free or Die/Gadsden flag would be the antithesis of what they want.
It would likely have a rainbow background. Maybe a dollar sign for all the free stuff, but then again, money is evil. Is there a symbol for outrage? For hatred, exclusion, and conformity? Maybe they just put the hammer and sickle on the rainbow flag.
Ian has it right. The flag represents America I don’t pledge allegiance to a piece of cloth, I pledge it to what America is (or was).
SMH, during battle the greatest defeat is the loss of a flag. Taking an enemies flag is the symbolic defeat of not just an opposing force, but everything and everyone that stands behind it.
I take the desecration or disrespect of my flag by leftist reprobates just as seriously as I would if an enemy combatant had taken it, with one exception.
If we lose a flag on the field of battle; we lost it in an honest fight. These scumbags would be the mulch we march through on the way to the fight.
Here’s the short-hand test for Leftist outrage, no matter what the subject of the outrage: “What would Ward and June Cleaver have told Wally and The Beaver about it?”
If they would have defended and supported the practice, then it’s part of Traditional American Culture and therefore must be destroyed.
The Pledge, the Electoral College, statutes of war heroes, great literature, marriage . . . apply the test and you know where Leftists stand.
Disgraceful, Minnesota shamed again. We must keep up the battle that this doesn’t get worse and it’s just one little burb.
I’ll admit that reciting the Pledge was not the highlight of my day in elementary school. Sometimes, good things can be overdone. But now it’s 2019 and we have SJW types like Colin (I can still play QB) Kaepernick deciding that the Betsy Ross flag is a crypto-white supremacist symbol and persuading Nike to scotch its appearance on a shoe. White Supremacists and Kaepernick don’t define for me what is a laudable patriotic symbol. So I plan to fly one at my house next to my 50 star US flag. And burn my pair of Nike running shoes. Not done happily. I starting wearing the original Nike waffle racer in 1977 and completed 30+ marathons in Nike products. No jokes about brain damage. I didn’t get concussed like Kaepernick.
Not directly on-topic but it is a bit of the same kind of stupidity;
Keith Ellison apparently tweeted something about this Andy Ngo and I didn’t see the tweet but sort of telling Antifa that they did a good job and then, that tweet was deleted.
I saw a picture of Ellison with Jeremy Corbyn, the British guy (reputed to be anti-semitic), so maybe he is over in England, London perhaps, now or this past week.
I like the pledge, I’ve been told things like in the South they still say it, well, my niece from Arkansas confirmed they do… yet, I personally don’t know about MN, I think they don’t say it here actually. It’s a nice gesture to say it.
Did someone else mention it as an update, it sounded like the mayor is going to rescind the idiotic directive of not saying the “pledge”.