Anyone who sneers at patriotism—and continues to live in the society whose supporters he scorns—is a parasite, a fraud, or a fool. Often all three.

~Spider Robinson

The Pledge of Allegiance was written for the Columbus Day celebration and it was first published back in 1892.  The original version was much simpler:

I pledge allegiance to my Flag, and to the Republic for which it stands: one Nation indivisible, With Liberty and Justice for all.

Over the years, words were added, and changed until 1954, when President Eisenhower approved adding the words "under God".  That was the last change made, and so we have the current version:

I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands: one Nation under God, indivisible, With Liberty and Justice for all.

Here's the thing though, by saying this, one is pledging to see that these ideals are upheld, not affirming that they're being carried out.  

The only reason not to take an oath, or a pledge is because one doesn't believe in what it says.

Patriotism does not mean that you think your country is perfect, or blameless, or even particularly likeable on balance; nor does it mean that you serve it blindly, go where it tells you to go and kill whom it tells you to kill. It means that you are committed to keeping it alive and making it better

~Spider Robinson

As one with a gay brother, and a lesbian sister I weep for them, and for a country that is so far failing to live up to it's ideals.  However, I fail to see that young Will is accomplishing anything other than to expose himself to abuse.  If he truly believes that as a nation we are failing to live up to the Pledge, then he should be pointing the finger at the hypocrite who say the words, but don't mean them.

He should be proudly pledging his allegiance to these ideals, and diligently working toward making them a reality.

UU's are lining up to support this young man and his actions, but not looking for the deeper meaning.  That's where the church I was raised in, grew up in, and still want to believe in, has failed me again. Rather than trying to promote a deeper dialogue, they gleefully point out to the young man making a stand, regardless of the correctness or the consequences.

It's like telling kids that the 1st principle of UU is that we believe that every person is valuable.  The trouble is, the 1st principle doesn't say that.  What it says is that we believe in The inherent worth and dignity of every person. If you can't see that there's a world of difference in those two phrases, then I'm not sure we can discuss anything.

When one takes a stand like this, one has to think it out.  This was what I tried to impart to the youth when I was teaching Sunday school at my old UU church.  There were three things I stressed:

1. Make up your own mind
2. Get the facts before you make up your mind
3. Re-examine your belief when new facts appear

UU's often profess to be liberal thinkers, but forget what that means. The first definition at dictionary.com is: favorable to progress or reform, as in political or religious affairs.

That's the crux of it right there. Favorable to progress or reform doesn't mean anything more than being open to new ideas. Sadly, many people who want to flaunt their liberal credentials are as closed minded as any right-wing wacko, and anyone who feels otherwise is some kind of hate monger or fool.  The current state of UU was summed up perfectly below

I know that there are people who do not love their fellow man, and I hate people like that!

~Tom Lehrer

 

I know that the grilling days are almost done for this year. Truthfully, I hadn't expected them to be this nice for this long, though I usually grill well into December.

Today I spent some time at halftime--thank heaven for the 'pause' function on the TiVo--and grilled some lunch for a change. Polish sausages on an open flame, with bourbon soaked, applewood chips for flavor.

The game wasn't going well, so lots of beer was consumed during this grilling session.  Thankfully, both the game and the sausages turned out OK!

~Easy

My entry for this week's Photo Friday challenge: Vehicle

This is the Pierre Laclede, one of several trains that run around the perimeter of the St Louis Zoo.

~Easy

Today's challenge for Photo Friday was Three.

This was a play at 3rd base in a league game as one of the girls from the Teenager's school stole 3rd base.

~Easy

If there's no Public Option, then nothing has really changed, has it?

~~~~~

There's a lot of debate about health care in the USA, but it all boils down to one central concept: 
Should everyone have access to a doctor, both before and after they get sick?

If your answer is yes, then you have to admit that SOMETHING has to be done.  Let's get it started, and fix any errors down the road.

If your answer is no, then we have a fundamental dsiagreement in principle, and nothing more to talk about.  On some things, there is no middle ground.

~~~~~

If later facts change anything, then we have something to discuss.  Otherwise, it's already old news

~~~~~

McGraw Millhaven spent an hour on the story of a bereaved mother calling the PM of Great Britain and dressing him down for spelling errors in a condolence letter that he hand wrote to her.  While this is interesting, it's a story about the PM of Great Britain.  It's not worth an HOUR of your show, or my life.

Also, from what I've heard, Gordon Brown is blind in one eye and has notoriously bad handwriting.  Perhaps it's sloppiness, not poor spelling? 

In any case, the leader of Great Britain took the time to hand write a letter.  That says a lot about the man, whatever you think of his politics.

~~~~~

Oh, and I don't have any idea of what Gordon Brown's politics are, nor do I particularly care.  He's really not my problem.

~~~~~

Gay marriage was voted down in Maine.    It's bullshit, but again,  it doesn't affect me.

Or maybe it does.  If they let gays get married then I'll have to buy a wedding present for my Sister-in-Law and her partner, and my little brother and his partner.  Probably for Margo & Vicky, and Murray & James too.  

OK.  I am now officially opposed to Gay Marriage until the economy improves or I'm done paying off my furnace.

~~~~~

Can you tell I'm getting remarkably unconcerned about most things.  If it won't affect my daily life, then I really don't give a shit, and don't have energy to spare for it.

~Eas

A small tournament, but it was nice for Youngest child to win her first team trophy as a middle schooler. She only won 2 games, but she was part of the overall team total that allowed the team to hold on and win, despite getting shut out in the last round.

~Easy

The Teenager had her first formal tonight.

*gulp*

~Easy

Today's Photo Friday challenge was softness.

This picture is from last December, shortly after we'd brought home the newest addition to the family.

~Easy

Here's another re-run for you while I play WoW:

Specify Color of Goat

 Originally published 6/3/2004

~Easy

(The link works now.  Mea Culpa.)

Last Friday we finally had our meeting with Youngest child's teacher, Ms Crazy and the school principal.  Needless to say, she denied saying anything about my wife, saying that the children must have misunderstood, but she did acknowledge that she does not believe that there were ever any dinosaurs.

I did find it interesting that the onus was put entirely on us.  The first words out of the principal's mouth were "what do you want to do?".  Fortunately, I do have some experience in adversarial meetings like this, and I had already marshaled my thoughts.  As I saw it, there were three options available to us:

1. Demand a full investigation 
2. Switch our daughter to the other teaching group
3. Let it go, and hope for the best

The first option was what we were hoping for, though I was never optimistic about it.  Barring a police report, schools are loathe to initiate investigations involving the children.  The school would need to interview all of the children, and in the process get parental permission for all of these interviews.  This would blow the issue way up, and make our daughter the center of a controversy.  Since Ms Crazy is popular with some of her students, there would invariably be some kind of blowback on Youngest child.

My wife and I had discussed option 2 at some length.  The way things are set up at this school, there are two "teams" of teachers in the core classes: Math, Science, Language Arts, and Social Studies.  We already knew that it would not be possible to simply switch Social Studies teachers, Youngest child would have to switch out all of her teachers in these four core classes, and get placed in different classes for all of her other subjects.  Youngest child really loves her homeroom teacher, and switching her would be somewhat traumatic. Additionally, we've had experience with the Science teacher on the other team, and we would rather take our chances with Ms Crazy than go through the probems that this Science teacher will create for us.

In the end, option 3 was what we ended up with. 

Our concern here was that somehow our daughter would not receive fair treatment in the class.  Until now, there have been no problems with her grades, and the gist of the parent teacher conference that started this whole thing was that Youngest child was a good student. Ms Crazy assured us that she had no ill feelings toward our daughter, and that Youngest child would get a fair shake.   The principal apologized for the misunderstanding, and stated that he would monitor the situation.

Since then, Youngest child says that Ms Crazy isn't treating her any differently, and things are more or less back to normal.  We have heard that the principal has been spending some time in the classroom with Ms Crazy, and I did get the impression that this is not a done deal with him by any stretch.

So we'll see what happens.

~Easy