Patriotic picture taken at Cy-Fair High School creates buzz (texas)

It's a normal part of the school day for many students and teachers, but what happened Friday during the pledge and moment of silence that follows at Cy-Fair High School is creating quite a buzz, thanks to a teacher who captured the moment on camera.

Is standing at attention for the flag really that rare? Well, I’m glad the right teacher saw this and wants to encourage his students to consider why the groundskeeper would show such respect. I heard groundskeeper and right away I presumed it would be a middle aged hispanic man, fresh from the border. Not that there’s anything wrong with that of course. Turns out the gardener is a young black man wearing a couple of earrings. He speaks very well, and seems clearly in the moment, not talking to a reporter while earplugged into rap crap on the IPOD. Good luck to him.

Kudos to the gentleman for feeling free to express his convictions.

I'm not going to stop anybody from reciting the PoA, or being respectully silent after the Pledge.

However ...

Given the very limited powers that the Founding States had delegated to the feds via the Constitution, the Founders had intended for citizens to regard the state that they live in as an independent nation. Only foreigners were expected to see the states one nation under a federal government.

"The true theory of our Constitution is surely the wisest and best, that the States are independent as to everything within themselves (emphasis added), and united as to everything respecting foreign nations." --Thomas Jefferson to Gideon Granger, 1800.

The problem with the PoA is the following imo. Not only was the Pledge written by a socialist, but using terms like "one Nation," and "indivisible," the Pledge is arguably pro-big central government indoctrination to everybody who recites it.

Also, if I'm reading the explanation correctly, U.S. Code 4, § 7. Position and manner of display was enacted by act in 1947. This is after FDR's activist justices had unreasonably expanded Congress's Commerce Clause powers by deciding Wickard v. Filburn in Congress's favor in 1942. Code 4 contains the following rules for displaying the U.S. flag with state flags, rules which unsurprisingly don't compliment the federal government's constitutionally limited powers.

(e) The flag of the United States of America should be at the center and at the highest point (emphasis added) of the group when a number of flags of States or localities or pennants of societies are grouped and displayed from staffs.i
(f) When flags of States, cities, or localities, or pennants of societies are flown on the same halyard with the flag of the United States, the latter should always be at the peak (emphasis added). When the flags are flown from adjacent staffs, the flag of the United States should be hoisted first and lowered last. No such flag or pennant may be placed above the flag of the United States or to the United States flag’s right.

For the sake of not misleading low-information citizens who have never been taught the federal government's constitutionally limited powers, I say that flag displays should compliment the federal government's constitutionally limited powers by displaying a smaller U.S. flag lower than state flags.

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