Discussion: CT Town Official Protests Trump By Kneeling During Pledge Of Allegiance

They should really piss off rightwingers by using the pre-1950s pledge.

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Why can’t people have the decency to protest in the privacy of their own homes, where no one else can see or hear them?

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Threats? Calls for resignation? For exercising her rights like a good American should? Mein Gott, we’re a nation of morons. I’d qualify that with “now,” but I’m not sure it’s warranted.

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She is free to do what she wants. IMHO, a better form of protest is to start a voter registration drive. The GOP lives for shit like this to exploit with their base. At the end of the day, it accomplishes little except to harden the opposition and gives them something rally against.

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I used to worry about progressives doing things that might tick off the base. But then, I began to realize that even if we did nothing, they would make up stuff to get angry about.

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O I love this. I really was hoping that the kneeling during the anthem would spread.

Thank you CT town officials!

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ÂżPorque no los dos?

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“Trump, a Republican, has said his immigration policies and his plan to build a wall along the Mexican border are meant to keep the United States safe white.”

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The pledge is childish, religious, and insulting to anyone who does not believe in state-mandated fascism. I do not take a knee at school board meetings during its recital, but do not stand or recite, as is my right.

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“The Pledge of Allegiance was written in August 1892 by the socialist minister Francis Bellamy (1855-1931). It was originally published in The Youth’s Companion on September 8, 1892. Bellamy had hoped that the pledge would be used by citizens in any country.” WHAT??? A SOCIALIST wrote this thing? We can’t have this!! How about “Lock her up?”
Or “You didn’t build that?” http://www.ushistory.org/documents/pledge.htm

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I always found it curious why we pledge allegiance to a flag, and not the country itself, or to any ideals that this country stands for. A flag is simply a symbol, and our symbol has changed dozens of times, but the values on which this country was founded have stood the test of time. Those values are being challenged, but i find it much more appropriate to pledge my allegiance to the Bill of Rights than a stitched piece of cloth.

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OR the constitution which I think would be the correct thing to pledge allegiance to. I agree with you - I got to the point where I hated the stupid thing by the time I was finished with high school.

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“And to the republic for which it stands”

My big thing in grade school was that I wouldn’t actually say the “under god” part.

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This is the original version of the pledge:

So the pledge is made to the flag as a symbol of the country and to the country itself, with shout outs to the ideals of a republican form of government, that we are an indivisible union of states, and that we strive for liberty and justice for all. So in its original form it did all those things you asked. Of the revisions that have been made to the original pledge the only really objectionable one is the “under god” bit, the rest pretty much just make more explicit that we are talking about the flag of the United States of America.

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Yeah but who else does this? It always felt really strange to me to have children recite this pledge - it’s such a propaganda move.

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Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel: Samuel Johnson

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Well.

In Matthew 6:5, Jesus admonished Christians to pray in private, as public displays of religion were hypocritical ("And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full.").

Not working so well with our evangelicals.

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Yes please!

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Of course it is a propoganda move, it was intended originally as propaganda to inoculate children in certain fundemental principles of the country. The problem comes in that it has come to be treated as a superficial patriotic rah rah rah, instead of the starting point for promoting/instilling those still, ignoring the stupid god addition once again, admirable ideals as Bellamy seems to have intended it.

I could see it having a place and even rather like the sentiment of the original, sort of like the old E Pluribus Unum motto, but we need to get over some of the knee jerk patriotic wankery to allow for a more reflective understanding.

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