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"One state under God"

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From Liberally Lean I learn this morning that we have new wording in the Texas Pledge:

“Honor the Texas flag; I pledge allegiance to thee, Texas, one state under God, one and indivisible.”

This is part of the important business that our elected officials carried out during the 80th Legislature. Link

Capitol Annex has the exchanges from debate on this bill and they are pure gold. Thank you Rep. Burnam who I assume cast the lone nay vote. A few nuggets follow:

BURNAM: But it is as fundamental as when the pilgrims stepped on the rock at the founding of this nation and I have a lot of questions that I need answered. Do you know that in the bill analysis it’s stated that your bill will acknowledge “our Judeo-Christian heritage”?

RIDDLE:Yes, sir.

BURNAM: I’m sorry?

RIDDLE:Yes.

BURNAM: Thank you. Are you aware that Native Americans that lived on this land did not have a heritage based on Judaism or Christianity?

RIDDLE:Yes.

BURNAM: Are you also aware that within the last few decades, our country has become vastly diverse, in regards to culture and religion?


The things children say:

When I had to send my son to public school for a short time, he asked me about saying the pledge of allegiance. That was about the time the Iraq war had started. He often watches the TeeVee news with me and I often print out the real news from real sources like the Guardian or BBC so we both knew that there weren’t any WMD’s in Iraq and that Iraq had no involvement in 9/11. (Why didn’t you know that? Pay better attention next time!) For that reason, my son decided that he did not want to, on principle, pledge his allegiance to the flag. However, since some teachers are threatened by any attempt to display individuality, this posed a problem for him:

Face persecution for adhering to your principles
or
succumb to pressure and go along to get along.

That’s a hard lesson for a ten year old.The teachers bullied and intimidated him by standing nose to nose and staring him down during the pledge which brought unwanted attention from the other students. They also threatened him. Finally, I wrote a letter and, in so many words said:

BACK OFF BITCHES!

My son thinks deeply. That may be a result of being schooled at home where individuality and questioning everything is celebrated and reasoning is encouraged. At any rate, that was a brave stance for a young boy to take. But, my kid is like that. = )

About Sharon Wilson

Sharon Wilson is considered a leading citizen expert on the impacts of shale oil and gas extraction. She is the go-to person whether it’s top EPA officials from D.C., national and international news networks, or residents facing the shock of eminent domain and the devastating environmental effects of natural gas development in their backyards.

Comments

  2. Equusmommi says

    The whole TX pledge is completely creepy and laughable. We’re ONE NATION INDIVISABLE, not one nation indivisable except when divided for Texas.

    Recently I was at an event where we “had” to sing Texas Our Texas. Why would I do that?

  3. Cathryn Sykes says

    It always astounds me that religionists think its just fine to
    force faith.

    Throughout history, priests and kings have worked hand-in-hand to keep people in line. Revolt against the king and the priests declare that you are defying God’s will. Refuse to follow the state religion and the king’s soldier’s will take your property, throw you in jail, even torture you or take your life.

    I always wonder….does God want worship on such terms? Fake faith?
    Worship bases on fear and coercion?

    And I remember the story of a young teacher who was hauled in front of his country’s religious deliberative body and convicted of the crime of blasphemy. It just so happened that the religionists didn’t have the power to put this man to death — their nation had been conquered by another country– and the district governor of that country didn’t give a damn if the young man was a blasphemer or not. So the religionists trumped up a charge of sedition against the young teacher, and it was on that basis that he was condemned to death. If the religionists had possessed the right to execute him…

    ….he would have been stoned to death instead of crucified.

    And any teacher who would harass a child for refusing to sing a song should be fired.

  4. Patrick says

    That makes me remember how oppressive Texas Public Schools can be. It’s never fun, but always essential, to stand up to fascism wherever we find it.

  5. Inspirosity says

    But that’s exactly what the school system is meant to do, program robots who will work and not ask questions. I suppose we need the robots, but I wouldn’t want my child to become one either! Nice parenting.