Posted on 11/13/2009 9:16:12 AM PST by Category Four
A 10-year-old Arkansas boy named Will Phillips has decided that he cannot in good conscience pledge allegiance to the flag as long as the country for which it stands refuses legal equality to its LGBT citizens.
The West Fork School District fifth grade student clashed with a substitute teacher for his refusal to stand for the pledge, prompting a call to Will’s mother, Laura Phillips. When the principal acknowledged that Will has the right to refuse to say the pledge, Ms. Phillips asked that her son receive an apology — a request that the principal declined to honor.
Laura Phillips told the Arkansas Times that her 10-year-old is “probably more aware of the meaning of the pledge than a lot of adults. He’s not just doing it rote recitation. We raised him to be aware of what’s right, what’s wrong, and what’s fair.”
Will’s family has a number of gay friends. In recent years, Laura Phillips said, they’ve been trying to be a straight ally to the gay community, going to the pride parades and standing up for the rights of their gay and lesbian neighbors. They’ve been especially dismayed by the effort to take away the rights of homosexuals – the right to marry, and the right to adopt.
Given that, Will immediately saw a problem with the pledge of allegiance.
“I’ve always tried to analyze things because I want to be lawyer,” Will said. “I really don’t feel that there’s currently liberty and justice for all.”
After asking his parents whether it was against the law not to stand for the pledge, Will decided to do something.
On Monday, Oct. 5, when the other kids in his class stood up to recite the pledge of allegiance, he remained sitting down. The class had a substitute teacher that week, who tried to make him stand up, but Will respectfully refused.
After several days of Will refusing to stand for the pledge, it finally came to a head. The teacher, Will said, told him that she knew his mother and grandmother, and they would want him to stand and say the pledge.
“She got a lot more angry and raised her voice and brought my mom and my grandma up,” Will said. “I was fuming and was too furious to really pay attention to what she was saying. After a few minutes, I said, ‘With all due respect, ma’am, you can go jump off a bridge.’ ”
Will Phillips still refuses to stand during the pledge of allegiance. Though many of his friends at school have told him they support his decision, those who don’t have been unkind, and often attack him personally with anti-gay epithets.
“In the lunchroom and in the hallway, they’ve been making comments and doing pranks, and calling me gay,” Will said. “It’s always the same people, walking up and calling me a gaywad.”
Even so, Will said that he can’t foresee anything in the near future that will make him stand for the pledge.
Full interview at the Arkansas Times
No problem. What can you do? Not much.
What you can do is refuse to deal with this woman if she seeks to have any interaction with you at all.
Her neighbors should refuse to talk to her. If I ran a business, I’d do my best to see her take her business elsewhere.
She’s got every right to her beliefs. So do I.
On closer inspection, it does mention about his “parents,” but there’s no indication this way or that to say that he belongs to a hetero couple. QED
Well, since she’s two states over from me, I guess the “not dealing with her” takes care of itself ... but thanks for the thought.
Not too surprising since they’re all brainless inbred hicks and they do what there told.
He has the right to decline to say the pledge (I usually do myself, as my allegiance is to the Constitution, not a hunk of fabric). That doesn’t change the fact that he’s a totally lame gaywad.
Who are, Arkansawyers or the kids of screeching liberal “parents” (and I have never in my life used the term in so loose and academic a sense)?
ping for later.
Hick PUNK....we will be paying for his ass one way or another for life.
And there's the problem ... for all his pretense to "analyzing" things ... it all comes down to feelings.
My comments weren’t meant for you entirely. You know, communities with people like this in their midst should just shun them. It’s the community member’s right to associate or not with whom they desire.
When this woman winds up with zero friends, perhaps she’ll move out of the area.
liberal rural arkansawyers the kind that voted clinton back in four times in ar and twice in us.
I suggest everyone get out of Arkansas as fast as possible!
“We raised him to be aware of what’s right, what’s wrong, and what’s fair” ... as THEY see it. A 10 year old does NOT understand these concepts! They are INSTRUCTED. I have a very intelligent almost 10 year old granddaughter and she could care less about all of this. This kid in Arkansa is being indoctrinated by his parents and they’re so proud that he’s following their instructions.
Gotta run folks, but thanks for the response. My first thread here — I feel a little less like a newbie :)
I knew the parent was behind it.
LEFTIST parents=LEFTIST kids
This is trickle down LEFTISM from the PARENTS.
God help this generation to see the LIGHT!
“I’ve always tried to analyze things because I want to be lawyer,” Will said. “I really don’t feel that there’s currently liberty and justice for all.”
THe LEFT will make sure he get FREE tuition - at YOUR expense! Just watch.
...file under the category “When Moonbats Breed”
Bet Will will have a fun time on the playground after the kids start hearing what the adults at home have to say! I almost would bet that Will is not from the area and just moved in in the past few years?
While I agree with many posters that this boy’s position is undoubtedly influenced by a massive, expensive and incessant public-relations campaign, the law if firmly on his side, and has been used by conservatives and religious people to protect their rights.
In a 1943 Supreme Court ruling in favor of the petitioner who had been punished for refusing to say the Pledge of Allegiance, Justice Robert H. Jackson declared that “if there is any fixed star in our constellation, it is that no official, high or petty, can prescribe what shall be orthodox in politics, nationalism, religion, or other matters of opinion or force citizens to confess by word or act their faith therein.”
In other words, government may not interfere in the free exercise of religion, speech or association. I wish this thinking was more widespread today and I blame the liberals. No one does more to try to limit free speech than the gay-rights proponents.
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