Ithaca AREA residents voice displeasure with court (Ithaca resident SUPPORTS court) on Pledge ruling

The Associated Press ^ | Friday, June 28, 2002 | By DAN HIGGINS and VICTORIA FREILE

[Behind Liberal Lines]

The Pledge of Allegiance, the 110-year-old American loyalty oath which precedes most school days and public meetings, is an expression of what most people think and therefore should be preserved, people throughout Tompkins County said Thursday.

A federal appellate court's ruling Wednesday that the Pledge was unconstitutional because of the phrase "under God" led many to react with scorn, while a smaller group thought it was a well-reasoned decision.

[Behind Liberal Lines]

If you are critical of the Pledge you are therefore unpatriotic," said Benjamin Nichols, a former mayor of Ithaca and recently retired member of the Ithaca Board of Education, who agreed with the ruling. Nichols, who presided over possibly hundreds of public meetings which began with the Pledge, said he always just skipped the "under God" phrase

You'll note that the "Ithaca area" people who were aghast at the court's ruling actually resided in the small, more conservative, towns OUTSIDE of Ithaca.

You'll also notice that the lone Ithacite quoted was the former openly socialist mayor of Ithaca who was AGAINST the Pledge.

Ithaca is the City of Evil.

[Behind Liberal Lines]

City of Evil bump

[goldstategop]

Displeasure with the 9th Circuit from the Home of the Empire Strikes Back?? Huhnnnn, for a moment there I thought they all converted to Freeperdom!!!! ;-)

[Grammy]

"Ithaca is the City of Evil."

I couldn't agree more.

[Behind Liberal Lines]

Displeasure with the 9th Circuit from the Home of the Empire Strikes Back?? Huhnnnn, for a moment there I thought they all converted to Freeperdom!!!!

Sadly no conversion. As noted in the article, the sole Ithacite quoted expressed his support for the 9th Circuit.

Ithaca remains the City of Evil.

[Reagan is King]

"It's one of those issues that people feel so strongly about it's very difficult to raise it. If you are critical of the Pledge you are therefore unpatriotic," said Benjamin Nichols, a former mayor of Ithaca and recently retired member of the Ithaca Board of Education, who agreed with the ruling.

Why doesn't it surprise me that this clown is somehow associated with public education?

[Kaslin]

The answer, Circuit Judge Alfred T. Goodwin of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals wrote, is that the phrase "under God" amounted to the government endorsing a religion.

I'm curious what religion the government endorses with this?

[Behind Liberal Lines]

Especially in Ithaca, where the liberals who dominate the community work overtime to impose their ultra liberal agenda on the area children. The School District has mandated that elementary school students in the first and second grades be graded on how well they "respect others of varying cultures, genders, experiences, and abilities." It's even listed on the schools' report card. Despite this alleged tolerance, a student who was found reading the bible on her lunch hour was chatised for doing so. Another was directed not to bring a book about Christmas to school.

There's even a taxpayer funded "alternative" (ie, hippie) school that let's students graduate in majors like basket weaving and political activism, and featured convicted cop killer Abu-Jamal as its graduation speaker.

(To order "Ithaca is the City of Evil" merchandise, courtesy of FREEPER "the," Click Here).

And to order "Ithaca is the City of Evil" bumper stickers (and support Free Republic),Click Here).

[Soaring Feather]

Ithaca is the City of Evil bump

[hillary's_fat_a**]

Ben Nichols was actually a prof in the Electrical Engineering school while I was an EE student at Cornell; fortunately, I never took any classes with him.....

[Behind Liberal Lines]

Two letters in today's paper from Ithacites on this topic. Of course they support the Court's ruling and attack the Pledge:

The first one, from a local--get this--folk singer displays the typical elitist attitude so common amongst the local leftists, takes a gratuitous shot at the Bush Administration and even implies the Pledge is racist:

What is so hard to understand about separation of church and state? **** [The pledge] reflects .... jingoism against non-Christians --what since 9/11 George W. Bush and John Ashcroft have sometimes directly accused as "evil-doers." Most of the civil and foreign policy changes they advocate in reaction to the threat of "evil" (non-American, non-Christian) are ill-conceived, biased and possibly racist.

I hope her songs are better written than her letter, but I doubt it.

And this one from a retired English professor, advocates against saying the pledge at all:

I have been an active member of Saint John's Episcopal church since our arrival in Ithaca more than 50 years ago. I have not said the Pledge of Allegiance since the addition of the words "under God."

Ithaca is the City of Evil.

[NativeNewYorker]

Their philosophical outlooks are less interesting than the fact that they are motivated to broadcast their notions in print.

The desire to scream LOOK AT ME, innate for toddlers, never fades in some people.