Well I can see why they did it, but it feels a bit too much like they're ramming their beliefs down the throats of others and telling them it tastes nice. Why didn't they just not say it, if it's so offensive to them? Surely other people have a right to say it, just as much as they have a right not to... :\
Fine by me. The less American zealots in the world the better. Anyway, most European countries seem to manage ok without pledging allegience to their country every day/week/month/ever.
It's interesting that the person making all the fuss and proclaiming undying allegiance to America is a political science student...either she hasn't been doing the course long, or they're only teaching American politics...
*sigh* Ok here's an example: Crash (Cronenbergh) a: I have seen this movie, I find it disturbing, what do you think?. b: I have seen this movie, I find it disturbing, noone else should have to see it BAN IT. "You MUST pledge allegiance" "You MUST NOT pledge allegiance" Both arguments are just as flawed, therefore I CHOOSE not to side with either.
I disagree with this. Calling someone a fool merely because they have very different opinions than your own, perhaps that is the more foolish thing to do.
Not quite the same; dropping a nationalistic loyalty pledge from a small-beer meeting is more like dropping the UK national anthem at the end of every cinema show or evening's TV. Something we did around 50 years ago; we'd seen where excessive nationalism lead in Hitler's Germany. They'll get over it. Hopefully.
Yeah, but thats the point, it was dropped, not banned, which was my point, there's a big difference...
All of this God stuff is really tiresome. If you are offended by it ignore it, but don't feel justified in making everyone else around you not mention it just because you don't want to hear it. I guess next they will say they are offended by our currency and therefore it should be altered completely just for their sake?
Exactly. Just because these three people don't want to say it, doesn't mean they should force their beliefs on the others in the counsel; just as these 3 shouldn't be made to say it.
Fair enough, but I think that anyone (at least, outside of the military) blindly pledging allegiance to their country and/or government is being pretty foolish. If you know what it means and agree, good for you. But most people just do it because everyone else does. If he'd replaced 'that' with 'their', would you have agreed with the statement? Blind patriotism is dangerous, especially in large groups. But only blaming allegiance to one government is just plain ignorant.
To be honest I don't think any opinions can really be bad. Opinions are thoughts and thoughts can be challanged and defeated easily if they are poorly considered. It's apathy that's the real problem - you cannot challange the position of someone who doesn't bother to take one - for that reason in my opinion blind patriotism is almost better then no feelings at all on the subject of ones country.
