Friday, September 28, 2007

When Atheists unite

...great things can happen. Take the 50 Denver children who walked out on the Pledge of Allegiance to voice their opposition to the mandatory time set aside to recite the pledge and the objectionable phrase "one nation under god".

About 50 Boulder High School students walked out of class Thursday to protest the daily reading of the Pledge of Allegiance and recited their own version, omitting "one nation, under God."

The students say the phrase violates the constitutional separation of church and state.

They also say the daily reading of the pledge over the school public address system at the start of the second class takes away from education time and is ignored or mocked by some students.

A state law passed in 2004 requires schools to offer the opportunity to recite the pledge each day but does not require students to participate.

The protesting students, members of the Student Worker Club, want administrators to hold the pledge reading in the auditorium during each of the school's two lunch periods for any students who want to participate.

Source: The Denver Post - Boulder High students walk out during Pledge, recite own version

I must admit. High School for me was in the 70s. I don't actually remember if we had to recite the pledge of allegiance. We had other motivations - Bob posted a comment linked to the article about that brought it all home for me.

Kids in Boulder worship marijuana. They "pray" to it 5 times a day while facing San Francisco, California.

Sounds about right to me. I could explain much about why high school is not something I remember well.

4 comments:

Jarka the Karka said...

"'God' ... is a word." (The Sphere from Michael C.'s SPHERE, as rehd by Ed Asner)

The Pledge's "One Nation under God" is simply saying that 'we for whom the flag stands' are united, and that unity--though greater-than (or 'over') every living individual--is yet 'under' whatever entity each individual holds responsible for the forces of nature, luck and general awesomeness.

But if those students are with some force greater than God, then let them fly Mother Nature's silver seed to their new home in the sun and let us Americans stay in the Kingdom!

the blogger formerly known as yinyang said...

"Take the 50 Denver children"

It says it in the article, but you mean Boulder. I highly doubt something like this would ever happen in Denver.

Johnny C said...

ok, wow! I wish I had friends like that in school. I was one of the few that not only refused to recite it, but also stand. I told my story here before about nearly getting kicked out of school for not standing up for the pledge in Florida. It is admirable that they not only did it in solidarity, but also peacefully and smartly. They also suggested an alternative which is a wonderful example of critical thinking, that I am sure was NOT taught by their school.

To mythman, your logic is utterly fascinating... in the sense that it is insane. There is no god, and this country was not founding on the idea of one. Get over your holier than though attitude and wake up to smell the sweet scent of truth. We are a nation of people and as such are subject to the force of nature and not of a imaginary and contradicting entity (no matter the religion).

Anonymous said...

Why are believers so worked up? The pledge did not always have "God" in it. It was added later by the 1st religious right movement and it should be deleted. It's fine to pledge to your country but to force the word God on everyone is ridiculous. Our founding fathers would not have done it! And, one should not blindly pledge & children are still blind. They're being brainwashed.