So it turns out I wasn't the only one made HORRIBLY uncomfortable every morning in school. Every morning in elementary school (and beyond maybe, I can't remember) the whole class would get up and begin to recite a cult like chant about how aligned we were with our country and god. Every day I would try not to be noticed as I stood silently while everyone chanted away. Kinda sucks how the only people who are being made to feel like shit are children who have not voting power, or legal rights to make it stop. So this guy in Sacramento, stood up for his daughter and made a difference. Check out the
CNN Article or learn about the history of the Pledge of Allegiance
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That’s funny, Gene — I so distinctly remember the exact same phenomenon (standing silently, feeling awkward and bitter), even as early as Ms. Won’s kindergarten class. Weird. What’s weirder, though, is that I don’t think Mom and Dad ever explicitly said anything to us about the pledge and not participating. I guess the values with which we were raised, or our common genes, I suppose, were enough to make us both feel freaked out by the automatons.
I’m *still* angry about having to recite that goddamn thing, and it’s been years and years since its theistic verses touched my lips.
What makes me even MORE angry about this whole situation is Congress’ reponse to the ruling. They’re calling it “stupid” and threatening to blacklist the jurists that made the decision. As far as I know, Congresses is unanimously against the ruling, so it will probably be overturned.
I find it ironic that everyone is supposed to have a voice, and that even minorities are supposed to be represented. But we godless heathens are basically left entirely without recourse when we see something we don’t like, because whatever the legal battles we win will be overturned by congressmen vying for the christian vote.
Oops. I could rant on this for hours, but i’ve got work to do.
Oh, and one more thing….
One congressman is even citing this as evidence that we need a more “common sense” oriented legal system.
Which is just about the most ironic thing in the world, in my eyes. Because to me, this decision IS common sense. A government-funded program that requires children to pledge fealty before a monotheistic deity…..
<sarcasm>That doesn’t sound a THING like a an unconstitutional melding of church and state.</sarcasm>
grrrrrr!!
i stopped saying it a long long time ago too. but i never felt that put upon if other people wanted to say it. as long as they didn’t force ME to say it. it would have been fucking funny if one day no one had wanted to say it and we all just stood there and looked bored. except we wouldn’t have looked bored for very long as we would have all been giggling cause we were little kids with easily influenced senses of humor. sex!
I`m in the 6th grade and every morning over 480 students are standing outside in straight lines reciting the pledge. It IS like a cult, chanting it everyday……Something has got to be done, besides me just standing there looking like a dumbass while everyone has their hand on their heart smiling like a possum eating shit chanting.
do they make you stand in gender segregated lines? what state do you live in? you should do something about it. but legally, not violentally. we don’t condone violence.
Good Luck, Badashel.
the supreme court takes the view that it shouldn’t worry itself too much about the political rights of children since eventually they’ll be old enough to vote and change whatever they didn’t like as a child. it’s a nice story, isn’t it?
the other thing i wanted to mention but forgot earlier is how funny it is that they start us saying the damn thing in kindergarten before most of us have any idea what we’re saying. it’s like in one of the “ramona” books where she thinks a “dawnzer” is a lamp that gives of “lee light.” and then her dad molests her and beezus shoots heroin.
gasp! No, not Beezus too!
When I was in elementary school, we sang the pledge. How freaky is THAT?!?
when i was in high school we sang the quadratic formula. i think i win.
what, to the tune of pop goes the weasel? i sang that one too.
yeah, pop goes the weasel, and then someone realized that you can also sing it to “burning down the house” by talking heads, and that was pretty much the end of it for me.
i can’t remember how “burning down the house” goes, or even if i know how it goes in the first place. i think i need a demonstration.
WATCH-OUT
[beat beat]
you might get what you’re after
ooh baby[?]
[beat beat]
strange but not a stranger
i’m an…
ordinary guy
BURNING DOWN THE HOUSE!
so how does the quadratic fit in that song? (note: this is just a sneaky way of stealing the top secret quadratic equation from you gullible american type people.)
tunnels build by kgb
X IS
[beat beat]
equal to negative b
plus or minus
[beat beat]
the square root of
b squared minus 4ac
ALL OVER 2A!!!
when i took the LSAT, you see, there’s this essay portion that doesn’t affect your 3-digit score and that no one ever reads, but that they keep around to make the girls feel better about tanking the analytical reasoning section. anyway, they give you scratch paper to lay out your argument before writing the essay. so i wrote my essay and then used the scratch paper to derive the quadratic formula. and so, for my next trick…
ax^2 + bx + c = 0
ax^2 + bx = -c
4a^2x^2 + 4abx = -4ac
4a^2x^2 + 4abx + b^2 = b^2 – 4ac
(2ax + b)^2 = b^2 – 4ac
2ax + b = +/-(b^2 – 4ac)^(1/2)
2ax = -b +/- (b^2 – 4ac)^(1/2)
x = [-b +/- (b^2 – 4ac)^(1/2)]/(2a)
thank you, thank you very much.
Wow, that’s very impressive how you derived the… NERD! NERRRRRD!
Matt’s not a nerd, he didn’t show his derivative in MathML.
Gene has now taken over the coveted Nerd title. NERRRRD, I say to you.
im in Miamisburg,Ohio, and its not in gender segregated lines. now thats its snowing, we all crowd into the library and say it.yay, not