10-Year-Old Won’t Say Pledge Of Allegiance

[DearAbby]

Will Phillips isn't like other boys his age.

For one thing, he's smart. Scary smart. A student in the West Fork School District in Washington County, he skipped a grade this year, going directly from the third to the fifth. When his family goes for a drive, discussions are much more apt to be about Teddy Roosevelt and terraforming Mars than they are about Spongebob Squarepants and what's playing on Radio Disney.

It was during one of those drives that the discussion turned to the pledge of allegiance and what it means. Laura Phillips is Will's mother. “Yes, my son is 10,” she said. “But he's 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.”

More:

http://www.arktimes.com/articles/articleviewer.aspx?ArticleID=2f5d7a3b-c72a-446b-8d20-3823aa79c021

[Happyhippychick]

1. Awesome kids, wonderful parents.

[malaise]

29. +1 n/t

[Brickbat]

2. I find it really sad that this reporter thinks "scary smart" means "doesn't talk about Spongebob."

But maybe that's all it takes these days.

Pledging allegiance to a flag is odd, IMO, anyway...flags can be waved and held by all sorts of people.

[Kalyke]

6. Me, too.

I have a 10 year old son who can talk about the Oort Cloud, terraforming Mars AND Spongebob Squarepants.

[sinkingfeeling]

3. I need to meet these people. They're right down the road from Fayetteville, but I can't

remember being introduced to any 'Phillips' at any protest or meeting.

[Echo In Light]

4. We began telling our daughter yrs ago she needn't bother with it if she didn't want to

And I've likewise never once received a legitimate response from any teacher, or school admin, as to why the obsessive want/need of 'forcing' children to recite a "pledge" that, one, they know ZERO about, let alone have the vaguest concept of the meaning of the language, or its meaning.

[DearAbby]

5. I dont understand why they would want children that young

to make pledges.

[imdjh]

9. It's part of how you get E Pluribus Unum

And part of trure multiculturalism, which is to create a nation from many nations by affirming that you are a part of the past, present, and future of the nation, even if (as is sometimes the case) you actually have no connection to the birth of the nation.

[Echo In Light]

12. So that by the time they're of corporate Wage Slave age, they're easily duped on numerous counts:

... two party system is legitimate, free market is all about "competition," criminal conspiracy/collusion among the corporate/state nexus is non-existent, your superficial desires outweigh any of those big, confusing problems that have ...something to do with 'politics' ...hahah

Brainwashing human beings at a child's age ensures lifelong complacency ... not in any absolute sense, but the majority % is what they're aiming for.

[StarfarerBill]

7. What courage!

Will shames most of us adults with his compassion and bravery.

[TwilightGardener]

8. Meh. I would never use my child this way. I don't think it's healthy.

[DavidDvorkin]

16. It doesn't sound like they're using the child

Rather, they're encouraging him to think for himself, which he clearly tends to do anyway.

[GoneOffShore]

18. Thanks for your concern.

[liberalmuse]

28. It's not healthy to question?

Or to take a stand?

[Hippo_Tron]

31. I wouldn't put it past him to be capable of making this decision on his own

I had political opinions of sorts around age 11 or 12. If he's a really bright 10 year old then his parents aren't necessarily coercing him into doing this. I'm sure they influenced him, but 10 year olds don't always listen to their parents.

[MerryBlooms]

10. My best friend in the 6th grade

was Jehovah's Witness, she didn't salute the flag.
Indoctrination comes in many forms?

[Are_grits_groceries]

11. The Jehovah's Witness faith took this issue to the Supreme Court.

I know they can be annoying, but people ought to give a thought about what they went through.

<snip>
But before you shut the door on a Jehovah's Witness the next time, pause to consider the shameful persecution they suffered not too long ago, as well as the rich contribution they have made to the First Amendment freedoms we all enjoy.

The legal clashes Jehovah's Witnesses had with government authorities over their proselytizing and practices led to an astonishing total of 23 separate Supreme Court rulings between 1938 and 1946 -- surely more than any other single religious organization engendered before or since. So frequently did Witnesses raise core First Amendment issues that Justice Harlan Fiske Stone wrote, "The Jehovah's Witnesses ought to have an endowment in view of the aid which they give in solving the legal problems of civil liberties."

Next month will mark the 60th anniversary of the most infamous Jehovah's Witness decision, one the Supreme Court got completely wrong: Minersville School District vs. Gobitis. The court, smitten by pre-World War II patriotic fervor, ruled it was constitutional to require Jehovah's Witness students to violate their faith and pledge allegiance to the flag in public school.

A Pennsylvania school district had expelled Lillian and William Gobitas (their last name was misspelled in court papers) because they kept their arms down during the daily flag salute. The Witnesses' interpretation of the Bible is that saluting the flag would amount to placing another deity before God.

As recounted in Shawn Francis Peters' powerful new book, Judging Jehovah's Witnesses, the Supreme Court's decision unleashed a wave of virulent anti-Jehovah's Witness persecution across the nation that is little remembered today.

Witness missionaries were chased and beaten by vigilantes in Texas. Their literature was confiscated and even burned. Less than a week after the court decision, a Kingdom Hall was stormed and torched in Kennebunk, Maine. American Legion posts harassed Witnesses nationwide. The American Civil Liberties Union reported to the Justice Department that nearly 1,500 Witnesses were physically attacked in more than 300 communities nationwide. One Southern sheriff told a reporter why Witnesses were being run out of town: "They're traitors; the Supreme Court says so. Ain't you heard?"

Partly because of this violent reaction to its decision, the Supreme Court reversed itself with remarkable speed. On Flag Day of 1943, the court handed down West Virginia State Board of Education vs. Barnette, using some of the most eloquent language ever written to describe the First Amendment freedoms Americans enjoy. "If there is any fixed star in our constitutional constellation, it is that no official, high or petty, can prescribe what shall be orthodox in politics, nationalism, religion or other matters of opinion," Justice Robert Jackson wrote.
<snip>
http://www.adherents.com/largecom/jw_freedom.html

They got more than a ton of shit dumped on them, but they wouldn't back down. They did strengthen the First amendment.

[backscatter712]

13. When I'm obligated to recite the Pledge, I make it a point to omit the "under God" part.

I'm a fan of the pre-McCarthy pledge...

[mitchum]

15. I just move my lips and pretend like I'm saying the thing

[DefenseLawyer]

14. The Pledge of Allegiance is not different than McCarthy's Loyalty Oath

Having to pledge my allegiance to the country implies that someone is suspicious about my allegiance to begin with. It's a very wrong way to develop "good Americans" in my opinion.

[Echo In Light]

17. Sorta like a country that has to repeatedly insist & slogan chant about you being "free."

... or, like those sarcastic a-holes who deliver a caustic remark about someone, only to then back pedal with, "Auuhh, I'm just kiddin'!"

When they have to tell you they're joking, they're usually not.

[subterranean]

24. Or, in the same vein, a "news" network that has to keep reminding you

every five minutes that it's "fair and balanced."

[tekisui]

19. knr!~

[Obamanaut]

20. K&R n/t

[invader zim]

22. unrec..n/t

....

[Arugula Latte]

21. We told our kids they should stand, but they don't have to actually say

the Pledge if they don't want to.

I think it is absolutely ridiculous. First of all, the Under God thing is forcing religion down kids' throats, and making them liars if they don't believe in an invisible sky god. Secondly, it seems like such a silly indoctrinating propaganda piece to get kids to accept blind, mindless jingoism and "patriotism." Why not have them read the Constitution if they're interested in making good little citizens?

[Obamanaut]

23. A good family, teaching the boy to think for himself. It is amazing

how many kids, and adults, will stand and recite the pledge and not listen to what they are saying.

Why are they doing such? Because everyone around them is doing it, and they want to fit in.

We are in a small town. The last time I was in the football stadium for a high school soccer game the announcer said "We will now stand for the national anthem. You can look over toward the courthouse (which is two blocks away) and see the flag for your salute."

Now, how dumb is that! And, in violation of the flag code, the flag was up after dark and not illuminated - and they didn't seem to notice, know, or care.

So, I sat there until it was done - my own little protest against ignorance. And Miz O, knowing what I was doing, sat with me.

Kudos to the Phillips family.

I recced this earlier.

[Deja Q]

25. How many 5th graders truly know their orientation?

And if he understands the adult world, it's funny the article would rather avoid sharing his deeper opinions on that... (which is understandable, it's obvious which topic is going to be more... profitable.)

[Hippo_Tron]

32. I had some superficial political opinions around 5th grade

Sure a 5th grader can't fully comprehend the complexities of most political issues (a lot of adults can't either). But I understood at that age that I thought the government should help poor people and that if I were poor I would certainly want someone to help me.

[MisterP]

26. how dare he not join in the Bismarck-inspired, post-Reconstruction, 1880s groupthink!

they actually had a campaign back then to put a flag in every classroom: before, it was one per school; Flag Day was also established in 1885

its message, alas, has become "You must automatically respect the country/soldiers/whomever"

[Cali_Democrat]

27. This kid is awesome.

Good for him!

[TexasObserver]

30. Recommend