Language Liberalism Freethought Birds
Verbing Weirds Language only if you're expecting it to work in a simple way. This is a special case of the more general truth that Language Weirds.
Only when a republic's life is in danger should a man uphold his government when it is in the wrong. There is no other time.
The church says Earth is flat; but I have seen its shadow on the moon, and I have more confidence in a shadow than the church.
If we can't find Heaven, there are always bluejays.
Today in 1892 the Pledge of Allegiance first saw light. It has, of course, changed a bit since those early days.
Labels: birthdays, miscellaneous, politics
I used to teach Russian and Ukrainian, and some basic English, to civil servants. Now I teach Russian at a local continued-learning institute. I dabble in Gaelic and Welsh. I'm am amateur photographer and I love birding (in a small way). I'm a Progressive, and a Freethinker, and I know Evolution is a fact - that's FCD, Friend of Charles Darwin (look down the sidebar). I read a lot, and follow women's college basketball. Also I love astronomy, though I'm a rank amateur at it. Most of all, I like living in the reality-based community...
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4 Comments:
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At 10:20 AM, September 08, 2008
Barry Leiba had this to say...
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At 1:19 PM, September 08, 2008
The Ridger, FCD had this to say...
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At 7:29 PM, September 08, 2008
Anonymous had this to say...
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At 12:04 AM, September 09, 2008
Barry Leiba had this to say...
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<-- Older Post ^ Home Newer Post -->Yeef! Sorry, but I can't join you in being happy about the birth of a fascistic loyalty oath. The concept of having citizens, especially junior citizens too young to think about it for themselves, stand up, salute a flag, and blindly pledge to love their country is quite icky to me.
Me, I stopped saying it in about fourth grade, which is, I guess, when I developed the sense to think for myself about it. And I'm glad I was in fourth grade at a time when that was OK, and no teacher or administrator thought to take me to task for it.
nteresting that you call it fascistic, considering that its author was a socialist. But both credos are (or in socialism's case can be) nationalistic, I suppose...
But I do agree with you at least in part, and probably not so small a part, either. Mostly I posted this because Sarah Palin thinks the Pledge, as we now say it, "was good enough for our Founding Fathers" ....
I remember questioning the wording of the pledge in elementary school myself, as it was patently obvious that this country did not have "liberty and justice for all". My parents told me the whole thing was in the subjunctive: an ideal to strive for (my country right or wrong: when right, to keep right; when wrong, to put right) and that satisfied me. Much later the "under God" phrase began bothering me, and it still does.
Well, Barry, to me it's much more icky teaching our junior citizens about gays, abortion and that sort of thing in our schools, than it is to try to induce some sort or civic pride in their country.
gtoz, I approve of teaching kids civic pride. Long after I stopped reciting a silly "pledge", I got civic pride from learning how I could help in the community. I helped clean up litter. I volunteered to the mayor's office, and did things that kids could do in the town. When I was old enough, I started donating blood. When I got an amateur radio license I worked with the local radio club in disaster preparedness exercises, and in actual emergency stations before and after hurricanes. Lots of my classmates did some of these things too.
None of that had anything to do with blindly reciting a loyalty oath that probably 99% of the children never thought about beyond parroting the words.
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