I stated plainly why I feel it people should not insult the flag by remaining sitting while the pledge is said, but apparently you don’t understand english. Reread the post, and maybe have your mom come down to the basement to help explain what respect means.

As for your definition of self respecting, see again the comment above about your lowered mental capabilities and maybe consider having mommy take out a third mortgage on your trailer to send you to sylvan learning center.

moron…

There you go again, stating that no “self-respecting” person does that. What does self-respecting mean? I have a different definition than you do. I for one think that the war in Iraq is an atrocious waste of life and resources. I also feel that everyone that an American soldier kills is tantamount to murder (just as it is when an insurgent kills a soldier). So I could, within MY definition of self-respect, call a U.S. soldier a babykiller and war monger and still feel good about myself.

And you still haven’t really stated WHY you feel it should be compulsory to not insult the flag by standing during the pledge.

One more thing, why the personal attacks? I’m not mentally handicapped in the slightest. I simply have a different viewpoint than yourself.

It might surprise you to find out that I am a very conservative history teacher (just check out my blog) and that we do teach them that stuff — but some kids still don’t get it.

Big Dog:

I agree that they SHOULD HAVE stood, as a matter of respect, but there is plenty of settled case law that they don’t have to do so as long as they don’t cause a disruption, which the article clearly indicates they did not. And as far as the flag code goes, it carries with it no criminal or civil penalty — and the Supreme Court has ruled that we are free to ignore it (in the flag burning case).

And to both of you, the notion of giving a child an “ass kicking” goes beyond proper discipline into child abuse.

We can punish our children for saying things we do not like. I have every right to remove any right under the Constitution that my child might have. I can search his room without a warrant, I can deny him free speech and I can force my, and only my, religion on them, until they are adults (and technically while they live in my house).

Children are not mini adults and parents are responsible for them until they are adults so let us remove this pretense that they have “rights”. They have the rights I allow them to have.

In the opinion cited above one would assume that schools may not restrict dress but they can. If they had rights then there would be no such thing as hate speech. Let one of the kids use the N word and suspended. Offensive, yes but no more than disrespecting the flag.

As Kender said, the kids had a right to remain seated but exercising that right was disrespectful. You have a right to burn a flag (and I have a right to put out that fire with a lot of water pressure) but that does not mean burning a flag is not disrespectful and wrong.

Something that is legally right can be morally wrong.

The ACLU (founded by a Communist) is not the answer. They will support a Muslim kid offended by a ham sandwich a sandwich I might add that a child has the freedom to eat. The schools will change menus to accommodate one group over another and that is viewed as acceptable.

At 0600 and at 1700 each day on the military post where I work, the flag is raised and it is lowered. People are expected to stop what they are doing and render the proper respect. It is the rule.

Now, the Flag Code describes proper courtesy. Is it OK to ignore this because we do not like it? In that case is it OK to ignore any other Code based on the same criteria? It is just something to ponder.

I don’t care what the kids did. I have no hope in the next generation of spoiled, privileged brats who take but never give. However, if there are rules then I expect them to be obeyed. I don’t know if they had to stand but I know they SHOULD have.

It is the respectful thing to do.

Forget the school punishing him (which they shouldn’t) his parents should punish him. Teh school needs to be punished for not teaching this kid history and why he should stand for the pledge. See my comment above about walking around in public expelling huge amounts of noxious gas from your backside….you have the right to do so, but people generally don’t because it is considered rude and insulting.

I am not surprised that so many people are on the side of the kids to act insulting and ignorant towards our country flag and what it stands for, as that is the direction this country is headed.

Woe is the republic.

After all, the precedent supporting the absolute right of these kids to refuse to stand is only a mere 65-years-old, decided at the height of WWII. It is called West Virginia v. Barnette, and Justice Jackson (mentor to William Rehnquist) pretty clearly demolished any argument this school might have for punishing these students in the case. You might consider reading the opinions in the case before you comment upon it. One of the key passages is found here.

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, or force citizens to confess by word or act their faith therein.
West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette, 319 U.S. 624 (1943)

In other words, it strikes me that the folks who are behaving in an unAmerican fashion in this case are not the kids, but the school authorities — and those who support them, especially with suggestions that child abuse (reference to an “ass kicking he’d get” for exercising his constitutional rights). Perhaps they could relocate to the People’s Republic of China or Cuba, where such actions are more in keeping with the values practiced by their governments.

Part of the problem here is that we aren’t teaching our kids WHY it’s important to respect the flag and the ideals behind it.

I do not understand how so many people can be so obtuse as to not understand that it is insulting not to at least stand during the pledge. I never said the kids didn’t have the right, I said it was an insult to remain sitting. You have many rights in public. You can walk around letting out explosive bursts of gaseous compounds from your backside, but just because you can does not mean it is polite to do so.

You talk about the ideals America was founded on without seeming to understand that the whole point of America is that those ideals apply to every American, not just the ones who see things your way.

Loudly proclaiming your support for freedom of expression at the same time as applauding the suppression of that freedom when you personally find it offensive, or even repugnant, demonstrates that you simply do not grasp the concept of freedom of speech. At all.

Seems to me that you’re just another ideologue, and once you boil away the platitudes, there’s not much to choose between you and an ACLU ideologue.

The fact that you cannot grasp this simple concept and call it hypocrisy shows you as a simple minded brain washed cretin.

Ron, what you pledge under yoru breath is your business (free speech and all, pledge fealty to a cup of spoilt milk for all I or anyone else care, it’s your choice) but you do have the respect for the ideals behind the symbolism of the flag and the sacrifices that went into giving us the freedom to disrespect it.

You get it, Ron, and I respect and admire that. Just because you have the freedom to disrespect the flag and what it stands for doesn’t make doing so correct.

We have the freedom to call our soldiers baby killers and war mongers yet no self respecting person does this….see the difference Ian?

Ian, in deference to your handicap I am offering to send you a Silica Umbilicus absolutely free so that the suffering you endure from your CranialRectalitis may be relieved somewhat?

Just send an email you the CranialRectalitis Abatement Program and tell them Kender sent you. Your redemption code is DUURR.

What happened to the first amendment? Freedom of speech, press, religion, etc. etc.

Speech has been declared, multiple times, by the Supreme Court (you know, the highest judicial court in the country) as any action verbal or NON-verbal.

So stop with the hypocrisy for a half second and realize what you are saying.

And another thing what makes us the best country in the world? The freedom? There are European countries that are more technically free. The amount of money we make? Maybe at the beginning of the 90’s, but not now.

Maybe, it’s the opportunity that makes us great. And guess who secures those opportunities for ordininary citizens? THE AMERICAN CIVIL LIBERTIES ASSOCIATION.