Tag Archives: flag

A New Pledge of Allegiance for a New America


Posted by Omnipotent Poobah

We’ve become a nation selfish to a fault.

We don’t want to pay taxes, but we want services.

We launch hate filled screeds about taxes as tyranny, yet don’t lift a finger to stop the steady erosion of real constitutional rights.

We rebel against the idea that health care is a right and then complain about how high the insurance rates of the insured explode from de facto coverage for those who have none.

Social Security is an unfair entitlement to those who don’t use it. It’s what keeps a loaf of bread in the house when they do.

If poor people need help, let them visit the local church. Of course, they’ll be taken care of… if they aren’t gay, or Muslim, or mentally unstable, or any of a thousand other reasons.

Unemployed people are a bunch of lazy goldbrickers living off the public dole. Unless, of course, we become them.

We want to cut taxes to cut a deficit, but want to give more tax revenue to businesses who pass it along to shareholders with nary a job created.

It’s only a matter of time…

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United State of Me, and to the republic which only I want, one person, among millions, and selfishly, with as little liberty and justice as possible for anyone who disagrees with me.

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I Pledge Allegiance…Or Not


Posted by Omnipotent Poobah
LIBERTY AND JUSTICE FOR ALL - Reciting the Pledge of Allegiance is about upholding and exercising the freedoms that the flag represents - whether you happen to agree with those freedoms or not.

LIBERTY AND JUSTICE FOR ALL - Reciting the Pledge of Allegiance is about upholding and exercising the freedoms that the flag represents - whether you happen to agree with those freedoms or not.

When – during the campaign – Barack Obama chose not to wear a flag pin, he was excoriated as an Islamo-Terrorist pinko by many on the right, notwithstanding George Bush making the same sartorial decision from time to time.  God only knows what would’ve happened had Obama refused to pledge allegiance to his lapel pin had he been wearing one.

Now we have an idea.

When a 13-year old Maryland kid refused to take the pledge, her teacher allowed other students to taunt her while she jack-booted her from class. When Mom asked for an apology, the principal said it was the teacher who should be receiving the mea culpas, not giving them.

Attention: For the Irony-Challenged
Let’s forget for a moment the written school district policy forbidding such actions. Let’s not touch on the state of Maryland’s laws which explicitly excuse students or teachers from being forced to recite the pledge. Let’s also conveniently forget that in 1943, the US Supreme Court affirmed your right to refuse the pledge.

But for the irony-challenged, let’s look at what the actual pledge says:

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

That last line is clear. The words “liberty” and “justice” aren’t limited to just your liberties or only specific liberties with which you agree. The Constitution is for ALL. Each time that teacher or principal took the oath, they pledged allegiance to the “republic for which it stands” – a republic governed by the US Constitution and backed up by laws at the local, state, and Federal levels – including those cited above.

PINKO COMMIE? - You may not have liked Obama's decision to forego a flag pin and not cover his heart, but the choice was his to make.

PINKO COMMIE? - You may not have liked Obama's decision to forego a flag pin and not cover his heart, but the choice was his to make.

I ask you, who is the better citizen here? Is it the student who exercised her rights or the teacher and principal who morally perjured themselves by taking an oath and then not following it. They are dishonoring this republic by depriving someone else of their liberties. This cannot stand.

I find the trend toward blithely giving away, denying, or changing civil rights because we don’t like or agree with them disturbing. Each day civil liberties disappear while many whack the ACLU for supporting the Constitution. BTW, they’ve also defended Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, and Rush Limbaugh just as strongly as this girl and her family.

I’m a Flag Lover
I love the flag and the Constitution. I love my republic. That’s why I’m a big supporter of the pledge and honoring the flag. I am a veteran who proudly served this republic.

I wish the kid had seen things differently and Mom had instilled these values. But they didn’t and they were free not to. However, they’re no less American or patriotic than the screed-screamers who only consider hypocrites wrapped in the flag to be patriotic.

Those who don’t recite the superfluous “under God” line (added in 1954) as part of their religious or irreligious beliefs aren’t unpatriotic either. In fact, those complaining about the kid or dissing someone for not wearing the politically correct flag pin are equally free to express that opinion…and more power to them. However, they aren’t permitted to deprive someone else of their rights. Even if they are greatly offended.

It’s all part of that pledge to support “the republic for which it stands” thing you see.

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