Posted on 06/29/2002 4:34:36 AM PDT by 2Trievers
Edited on 09/03/2002 4:50:41 AM PDT by Jim Robinson. [history]
Having to recite the Pledge of Allegiance as a youngster often gave me the willies. Thought it was a damn lie. Still do, though I stand patiently at attention and wait for the disingenuous routine to end.
Unlike the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, I have no problem with the "one nation under God" part of the pledge. A heathen like me is all for more spirituality. I just have difficulty mustering any conviction for the part about "with liberty and justice for all." I find that to be a bit of a reach.
(Excerpt) Read more at ctnow.com ...
You got that right. The 9th court has tipped their hand for everyone to see. Unless some of these activists leave or are removed (impeached) from their positions, the shananaghans will continue. All in all, this spells trouble for the left. While they have made in-roads with their various agendas, they have realized a awesome redoubt of resolve when they strike to close to the heart of America.
...The pendulum has swung way to left since FDR. I am hoping that this will later be seen as the turning point, as the pendulum begins to swing back in the other direction.
IMHO, the pendulum will continue to the right for about five to eight years. Then the baby boomers will start retirng en masse. The result will be a huge sucking sound coming from Medicare and Social Security. As more retire, the demand for these will increase while services and funds dwindle. There will come a point where the politicians have a choice, raise taxes or cut benefits. Despite how conservative an elderly person may be, they will not let the politicians touch "their" benefits; IOW, they will vote democrat. So taxes will be raised. The Pubs will do what they always do, first try a reasonable approach to a solution, then capitulate. The Dem leadership understands this situation all to well and have drooled for such a crisis. They will promise the world to these senoir citizens. Democrats (leftists) will have the edge. Gen X, Y and Z will get the point of that edge. BTW, the biggest voting block has and will be senior citizens...game, set, match.
Please convince me that I am wrong! (sigh)
Hi, UB! ...all is as well as can be expected... thanks.
Looks like I just posted the text of your first link before trying it [above]... the second one appears - at a glance - to be the one I was looking for in my archives for gonzo.
Keep the faith... FReegards,
Bob I
It is fundamental thing that serves to tie citizens together in their daily lives, a means of reminding each of them that they are supposed to be a community.
Maybe it helps some to get through periods such as the eight years we recently suffered while knowing that the government was drifting, lying, and partying its way to perdition.
Maybe I wasn't too big on repeating it for a couple of years in the late seventies.
Nonetheles; every time a long standing, basic, symbol of community is attacked by the left or by any special interest or power group it is only for one reason and that is to reduce, eventually to destroy, that community. It IS a conscious effort and it is a familiar one: Post WW2 China went to such lengths as to destroy family cemetaries in order to break the link between people and community. It makes it so much easier for the government to increase its role as mother, father, protector, and master.
In this instance, pledging allegiance might actually reduce government's ability to dominate because it reminds people frequently what the plan is SUPPOSED to be.
You don't know what the frell you are taking about.
If you view the pledge as a result rather than a goal, you will very likely become and remain disappointed?
I would agree, but these person still did not state the PoA with the words "under G-d" in it.
Use your brain in a constructive manner and stop wrapping it in twisted legal theory and paper like dead fish!
My reasoning is quite simple, return the Pledge to it's original wording, and nobody has any room to bitch regardless of what they, you, or I believe. It was quite fine the way it was. Yet another fine example of Congress creating a problem where none existed.
There is no reason that every American, regardless of belief system should recite the Pledge and be in defiance of their beliefs.
There is no excuse for wrapping the flag around yourself and using it as a hammer to force everyone to believe what you do, and that's exactly what this comes down to, forcing everyone to believe what someone else wants.
---max
The author should go to Zimbabwe where he can be a part of dispensing justice without getting the willies.
The Zimbabwe pledge surely wouldn't be under God, there would be no mention of indivisibility and it goes without saying that the phrase "with liberty and justice for all" would not be needed either.
Ideas above nations, don't fixate on the symbols or the contractual republic because it will evolve into 'your favorite little monster'.
Scouts Out! Cavalry Ho!
Then the baby boomers will start retiring en masse. The result will be a huge sucking sound coming from Medicare and Social Security. As more retire, the demand for these will increase while services and funds dwindle. There will come a point where the politicians have a choice, raise taxes or cut benefits. Despite how conservative an elderly person may be, they will not let the politicians touch "their" benefits; IOW, they will vote democrat.
As someone on the front edge of the baby boom (born in the late 1940s) I do plan on retiring in a few years. Social Security does not even enter into the equation of what I expect to live on after I retire.
I honestly do not think Social Security as we know it today (a ponzi scheme) will exist in a few years.
I hope my fellow baby boomers have taken steps for their retirement, if they are counting on SS they may be surprised.
That's what bugs me as well. I grew up with the pledge. We were a small rural town back then (they've grown much since) and we had two Jehovah's Witness children (siblings) in our community's school. Starting from first grade onward they always left the room for that couple of minutes in the morning. It was kind of an odd thing at first (but then, so was school). But by the time you got to fifth or sixth grade, you didn't even think about it anymore- that's just what the kid and his sister did.
I've got to admit, there were times when I was daydreaming (or just still sleeping) when my mouth moved to form the words for the pledge. But I can also honestly say that as a child I spontaneously sang gospel hymns and patriotic songs for no other reason than it felt good to do so. Some of the hymns and songs gave me the cold chills, even as a child and I didn't properly understand why then like I do today, but it was a powerful thing- this feeling that God is watching over me at all times and that I belonged to a nation of heroes who had given their lives for the freedoms I enjoy. This is all the truth.
Now, today, those same songs still give me the chills even though I can most properly be described as an agnostic libertarian. When I was on guard duty in Bosnia, I regularly occupied myself with singing religious hymns for the comfort I found in them even if I wasn't certain about my actual belief at that point. It was something ingrained in me from going to church three times a week since my earliest memories (until I was old enough to decide I didn't want to). In short, it was part of my culture and even if I didn't technically believe in the religion itself any longer- the songs and the culture I was raised in still meant, and to this day mean, something to me. That goes for the patriotic songs as well and the pledge and celebration of the day we declared our Independance from the tyranny of a king.
The pledge has become a part of our culture and as part of "American Culture" I do not believe the court would be correct in telling Americans they cannot have it. What would be next? The National Anthem? What about the President? If he goes to church, isn't he, as the executive of the gov't endorsing whichever church he goes to and therefore lending the prestige of the United States Government to that church? We need to hold firm on the pledge or else we'll see those other cases in the court one day.
I grew up in a great nation, and I grew up with the confidence that the values I was instilled with would be valid when I was old enough to take on the mantle of my forebears. The court has no right to strip us of our culture. None. By God, we have a right to be Americans and that has certain implications. We have a right to grow up in and celebrate our American culture- not somebody else's across the ocean and certainly not some liberal fool's in a black robe who just can't get his mind around his own culture and would celebrate anybody else's but his own.
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