From: Lee Daniel Crocker (lee@piclab.com)
Date: Thu Jun 27 2002 - 17:29:53 MDT
> (Mike Lorrey <mlorrey@datamann.com>):
>
> The whole problem with the logic of this court decision is that they
> claim that young children are unable to freely choose to not say the
> pledge. So freakin what? Young children are not allowed to freely choose
> whether or not to go to school at all, so how come this little 60 second
> spec of one's school day has to be so sacrosanctly respecting of their
> 'freedom'?
The children aren't the primary victim here: the taxpayers are. Such a
policy of a public school forces /me/ to pay taxes to support making
children recite a pledge I find morally repugnant.
> This all being said, I actually prefer the decision, I just think the
> rhetoric and propaganda being used to support it are loony, typical
> Kalifornia bogosity. The term 'God' doesn't specify WHICH god, exactly,
> or it's nature.
That only makes it offensive to fewer people, but it is no less
offensive to the first amendment. I, and millions of others, entirely
reject the "God" concept itself, in whatever form, whatever guise.
Believers shouldn't get off the hook just by playing nice with other
kinds of believers.
> The fact is that the founding fathers were all believers in some sort of
> deity they called "God". Washington dedicated the construction of the
> Capital in DC in full masonic regalia and using the standard masonic
> ceremony. Even the most liberal of the founders were believers. Franklin
> was a Quaker, while Jefferson was a deist who attended Unitarian
> services on occasion. Only one of the founding fathers wasn't a
> christian, and he was jewish.
Good for them. What's that got to do with anything? Why should I care
what a bunch of old rich white men happened to believe at the time they
created a document that expressed a better ideal? It's the /ideal/ that
matters, not the men.
-- Lee Daniel Crocker <lee@piclab.com> <http://www.piclab.com/lee/> "All inventions or works of authorship original to me, herein and past, are placed irrevocably in the public domain, and may be used or modified for any purpose, without permission, attribution, or notification."--LDC
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