College Students Ban The Pledge Of Allegiance
Posted on November 11, 2006
It will most likely come as no surprise that the student trustee that proposed the ban was an atheist and admitted socialist.
Student leaders at a California college have touched off a furor by banning the Pledge of Allegiance at their meetings, saying they see no reason to publicly swear loyalty to God and the U.S. government.
The move by Orange Coast College student trustees, the latest clash over patriotism and religion in American schools, has infuriated some of their classmates — prompting one young woman to loudly recite the pledge in front of the board on Wednesday night in defiance of the rule.
“America is the one thing I’m passionate about and I can’t let them take that away from me,” 18-year-old political science major Christine Zoldos told Reuters.
“The fact that they have enough power to ban one of the most valued traditions in America is just horrible,” Zoldos said, adding she would attend every board meeting to salute the flag.
The move was lead by three recently elected student trustees, who ran for office wearing revolutionary-style berets and said they do not believe in publicly swearing an oath to the American flag and government at their school. One student trustee voted against the measure, which does not apply to other student groups or campus meetings.
The ban follows a 2002 ruling by a federal appeals court in San Francisco that said forcing school children to recite the pledge was unconstitutional because of the phrase “under God.” The U.S. Supreme Court struck down the ruling on procedural grounds but left the door open for another challenge.
“That (’under God’) part is sort of offensive to me,” student trustee Jason Bell, who proposed the ban, told Reuters. “I am an atheist and a socialist, and if you know your history, you know that ‘under God’ was inserted during the McCarthy era and was directly designed to destroy my ideology.”
I’m with Dan Riehl on this one:
I have no problem with this. Not if we take away every dollar of state and federal monies the community college gets, including federally guaranteed student loans.
It’s a free country, after all. And people should be free to be as stupid and poor as they want, so long as tax dollars don’t have to subsidize it.
And you can thank a ruling from a San Francisco court for kicking this off. Now, who is it that comes from San Francisco? Oh. that’s right, the new House Frau, Nancy Pelosi.
It was struck down by the Supreme Court but left an opening for another challenge. Aren’t you glad Bush will get to put a liberal on the Court, or nothing at all next time?
» Filed Under 1st Amendment, Church And State, News
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7 Responses to “College Students Ban The Pledge Of Allegiance”
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Of course they’d ban it. The Pledge is American, and these secular colleges are like little Utopian islands, countries of their own. If your going to reject the recruiters who protect the freedoms and principles of this country, you may as well reject the principles themselves while you’re at it.
I like you how so casually use the word “atheist” as a slur, as if rejecting beliefs in supernatural heroes is grounds for mockery.
I’m also with Dan Riehl when he says “people should be free to be as stupid and poor as they want, so long as tax dollars don’t have to subsidize it.” This is why churches need to lose their tax exemptions. If people want to be fat, ugly, ineducable rednecks, they can do it on their own dime.
“This is why churches need to lose their tax exemptions. If people want to be fat, ugly, ineducable rednecks, they can do it on their own dime.”
Speaking of ineducable…what you just said made no sense genius. Churches do operate on their own dime. Tax-payers contribute nothing, including you. Next time you insult someone’s intelligence, learn proper grammar (”I like you how”) and make sure you have a legitimate gripe.
“Student leaders at a California college have touched off a furor by banning the Pledge of Allegiance at their meetings, saying they see no reason to publicly swear loyalty to God and the U.S. government.”Jay
“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. “
I am kind of curious what they teach at that California College since logic does not seem to be one of the courses. The Pledge of Allegiance is to the United States and to the republic form of government it has but it is not to God since saying one nation under God is a description of the United States. I wonder if they realize they stated that they have a problem with the republic form of government. Are they anarchist or socialist by any chance? I see they were.
Paul Yanna,
“This is why churches need to lose their tax exemptions. ”
This is ignorance speaking. Churches are tax exempt because of separation of church and state doctrine. If the government taxes a church it is not separate from that church.
Do you realize that your sacred Pledge of Allegiance was written by a socialist and that teaching obedience to the state is typically viewed as a communist trait?
Do you realize that your sacred Pledge of Allegiance was written by a socialist
And a Baptist minister and chairman of the NEA. What a mess, huh?
But the American Legion and Knights of Columbus straightened it out and made it right.
…and that teaching obedience to the state is typically viewed as a communist trait?
Maybe to those who tend to those traits.
Pretty sad camanintx, when one can not differentiate between pledging your loyalty to a representative government that you installed to serve and protect the people, and forced allegiance to a dictator.
That obedience to the state, is holding yourself accountable to the laws WE pass to order our society, not forced obedience to the whims of a Fascist state.