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University of Texas Professor Creates New Pledge For The 'Godless Radicals'
The Daily Texan ^ | Dana Cloud

Posted on 07/08/2002 9:18:00 AM PDT by tarawa

Pledge for the workers

My daughter, who is 11, and I were delighted at the California court decision omitting the words "under God" from the Pledge of Allegiance. She and I have always been uncomfortable saying the pledge, not only because of the religious imposition, but because it seems very strange to pledge loyalty to a scrap of cloth representing a corrupt nation that imposes its will, both economic and military, around the world by force. So she inspired me to rewrite the Pledge.

Imagine schoolchildren every day reciting the following:

I pledge allegiance to all the ordinary people around the world,

to the laid off Enron workers and the WorldCom workers

the maquiladora workers

and the sweatshop workers from New York to Indonesia,

who labor not under God but under the heel of multinational corporations; I pledge allegiance

to the people of Iraq,

Palestine and Afghanistan,

and to their struggles to survive and resist

slavery to corporate greed,

brutal wars against their families,

and the economic and environmental ruin wrought by global capitalism; I pledge allegiance

to building a better world

where human needs are met

and with real liberty, equality and justice for all.

The original pledge does not include or represent us godless radicals. The backlash against the California decision shows just how thin our democracy is.

Dana Cloud Associate professor Communication studies


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Culture/Society; Government; News/Current Events; Philosophy; US: Texas
KEYWORDS: hatredofamerica; moscowoncolorado; radicalleftists
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To: Squantos
specializes in the analysis of contemporary and popular and political culture from feminist, Marxist, and critical anti-racist perspectives. She teaches undergraduate classes in persuasion, social movements, speechwriting, and rhetorical criticism, as well as graduate courses in rhetoric and the public sphere, rhetoric and ideology, rhetoric and feminist theory, and rhetoric and popular culture. Dr. Cloud's areas of current research include the critique of therapeutic discourse, feminist and Marxist theories and politics, rhetoric of "family values," and the rhetoric of the U.S. labor movement.

Sounds like taxpayer funded communist propaganda with a captive audience. Why do most leftists work for the government or for foundations, organizations, and such?

41 posted on 07/08/2002 12:59:35 PM PDT by Mind-numbed Robot
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To: DrewsDad; 2Jedismom
per a letter in the "The Daily Texan"...

Vouchers not the answer

Public education suffered a great blow with the Supreme Court's ruling this week. If people actually believe that vouchers are the answer to our problem, perhaps they need to be schooled.

I don't know if vouchers ARE the answer, but we are in this whole situation because kids are NOT being schooled.

Continuing to abandon our nation's urban schools only perpetuates current inequalities. If we want to improve the educational outcomes of students, we must invest in these schools. Providing small vouchers to a small proportion of the population solves nothing!

Shouldn't the needs of the kids, not the schools come first??

Suburban dwellers constantly ask "is money really the answer?" Well, perhaps it is. If urban districts had more money, and in turn resources, they could better compete with suburban districts. Let's level the playing field just for once.

"Throw more money in the fire and all will be well"

In the end, the court's decision will likely subsidize those already in private schools and pull money from the public schools. Perhaps we'll wake up when parents in the suburban districts begin to complain of depleted resources.

42 posted on 07/08/2002 1:08:32 PM PDT by TxBec
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To: tarawa
This sounds like any University of Texas communist professors.
43 posted on 07/08/2002 1:14:21 PM PDT by Texbob
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To: tarawa
"...specializes in the analysis of contemporary and popular and political culture from feminist, Marxist, and critical anti-racist perspectives."

Sounds like somebody who couldn't get a job in the real world.

44 posted on 07/08/2002 1:17:05 PM PDT by etcetera
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To: MeeknMing
BWAAAAAHAHAHA! Bro, that'd be funnier if it didn't happen... "Godless radicals", huh... There's something empty and pathetic about that phrase, donchathink...
45 posted on 07/08/2002 1:55:52 PM PDT by maxwell
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To: maxwell
I'd say!
46 posted on 07/08/2002 2:03:36 PM PDT by MeekOneGOP
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To: tarawa
Here is her email reply to my Email at the bottom of her reply..., you'll note the absence of any threats from me..:

Her University Website

Dear those of you whom I have angered with my revised pledge:

Let me please take this opportunity to thank you for your feedback and clarify a few points that seem to be at issue. I am sorry I can no longer reply to everyone personally--the volume of mail is getting quite large. If you have written me a supportive note, can you please send it again without the word "pledge" in its title and I will be sure to read it more closely.

To those of you who are sending me hate mail, however, let me say the following:

I take my freedoms to dissent in this country very seriously. You are correct; I would not have the same rights to dissent and protest in countries like Afghanistan. I pledged solidarity not with their leaders or their terrorist organizations, but with the ordinary people, who are not being liberated by U.S. sanctions and bombs. Neither are they being liberated by the opportunites provided by U.S. capitalism. I do not have time to go through all the evidence for these claims, but if you are truly interested, write me again and I will provide some sources. Suffice it to say that if you have read any history you know that the U.S. either put in place or supported with money and guns the very dictators you decry today, including the Taliban and Saddam Hussein. Those of you who complain that you may have to fight and die for my freedoms clearly have misunderstood my anti-war stance. I do not want you to be sent to other countries to die or kill, because I think those actions are not in defense of our freedoms; more often it's about protecting oil profits and supplies. I don't want you over there killing civilians in my name, when my freedoms are not what is being defended at all.

The main thing to say is that if you cherish the freedoms of the United States, you need to tolerate the voicing of opnions that differ from yours. I am a well-educated thougtful human being. I see nothing overly bitter or provocative in having compassion not only for the victims of the 9/11 terrorists but also for suffering people in other countries. I am well qualified to teach at the University, which should be a place for thoughtful sharing of diverse views. My students get trained in critical thinking: the capacity to take in a number of perspectives and weigh evidence and reasoning on their own, which they would not be able to do if there were not at least a few dissenters among us here. And believe me, I am a member of a tiny minority on campus. I am not the enemy of freedom, but its staunchest supporter. I worry that now with the expanded Patriot Act and the new mega security-intelligence agency consolidation, that we may not have these freedoms very much longer. I will raise questions as long as I can.

I believe that name calling and threats to my physical safety, insults to my daughter, and other like responses are immature and unproductive ways of responding to serious political questions and issues. I am saddened that the quality of public debate in our nation is so impoverished. Of course I hoped to provoke a response, but I hoped to get a *real* response, not just hate and the attempt to silence me in the name of freedom.

With best regards,

Dana Cloud

MY EMAIL TO HER.... >Madam Professor-- > >Your "Pledge" is pure claptrap. You have not a clue about the greatness of this country. >Please tell me if there is another country you would prefer to live in--one that allows you to spew your anti-American drivel.

>"GRRRRR"

>Chicago

>Naturalized in 1994 by CHOICE!

Dana Cloud Associate Professor Department of Communication Studies CMA 7.114/mail code A1105 The University of Texas, Austin Austin, TX 78712

512) 471-1947 fax (512) 471-3504 dcloud@mail.utexas.edu website: http://www.utexas.edu/coc/speech/faculty/DCloud/

If there is no struggle, there is no progress. --Frederick Douglass

47 posted on 07/08/2002 3:43:13 PM PDT by GRRRRR
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To: GRRRRR
So if you agree with her, then she will listen to you but if disagree, then a form answer will do.

So much for supporting "dissent".

She would have resisted war with Germany too. Even after Japan attacked Hawaii (which was not even one of our states).

She must be outraged that we improved the lives of post-WWII Germans and Japanese with capitalism.

48 posted on 07/08/2002 4:36:18 PM PDT by weegee
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To: DrewsDad
I was guessing Lesbitarian .........:o)

Stay Safe DD ! Hope all is well with you and yours !

49 posted on 07/08/2002 10:43:22 PM PDT by Squantos
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To: Mind-numbed Robot
I'm just amazed that such can survive in the Great State of Texas...........

Stay Safe !

50 posted on 07/08/2002 10:48:45 PM PDT by Squantos
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To: TxBec
Thanks for the ping. As you probably already know, Austin and UT are the hotbed of liberalism in Texas. You have a tough decision ahead of you. Good luck.
51 posted on 07/09/2002 6:59:21 AM PDT by Brownie74
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To: tarawa
Dear Ms. Cloud,
so happy to know such brilliant minds as yours are inspiring the youth of the nation.....hopefully you will be able to be a small catalyst in the emergence of the Socialist United States of America.....a beacon of light in a dim world dominated by greedy capitalist, globalist, and self seeking religionist.....lets us hope that soon this nation will rise to the magnificent level of the those socialist/atheist nation states whose citizens blaze as examples to the world of a more reasoned and just society...

I do hope your life style matches your rhetoric and that you have begun yourself to live in a manner consistent with your philosophy.....so I must ask a view questions to discern your level of commitment

what type car do you drive?
do you have a clothes drier?
do you own/use a cell phone?
did you see Lord of the Rings?
how large is your home/apartment?
do you purchase fresh fruit and vegetables?
do you own a computer?
although it is hot in Austin I do hope you are not squandering the nation's resources on air-conditioning....air condition itself is a product of capitalism.....resist the temptation...is your class air-condition?

I do so hope you are not one of those radicals who rallies others to the noble vision of atheistic socialism and then goes home to eat Blue Bell ice cream...
52 posted on 07/09/2002 10:49:07 AM PDT by reflecting
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To: tarawa
Who is this loser?
53 posted on 09/18/2002 12:31:49 PM PDT by adam stevens
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To: GRRRRR

The main thing to say is that if you cherish the freedoms of the United States, you need to tolerate the voicing of opnions that differ from yours. I am a well-educated thougtful human being.

Air horns, noisemakers and slogan shouting hardly constitute "voicing of opinions." I think she is a bit confused.

I email her with the subject line: a dictionary and political science text might help. What the heck is "Unruly Civil Disobedience" anyway?


54 posted on 04/15/2005 8:20:47 AM PDT by auntyfemenist (Show me your papers...)
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