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Minnesota City Council Stops Reciting Pledge of Allegiance
Is it really a big deal that a small Midwestern city stops reciting the Pledge of Allegiance? My answer is, “yes,” and I’ll tell you why. The city council of St. Louis Park voted unanimously to stop reciting the Pledge. Here were some of their remarks regarding this decision:
Ellen Hertz, a business owner in the city, says she has no problem with the change, but doesn’t think it was necessary.
‘In terms of what would offend people and what offends me, that’s not at the top of the list,’ Hertz said.
Mayor Jake Spano wasn’t at the meeting when this change was approved. He says getting rid of the pledge wasn’t a big priority for him.
Spano told CBS Minnesota via email: ‘I think there are more substantive things we should be working on to make our city more open and welcoming.’
Welcoming to whom? I checked the demographics of the city: The population is just under 50,000; the city is 81% white; 96% have attended high school, 4% have attended college; the median household income is $71,346. In other words, it’s a pretty prosperous, blue-collar, Midwestern community. So who is pushing this agenda?
Even though the vote was unanimous, they are going to revote on the issue July 8.
One Council Member had this to say:
‘I hope it’s not too controversial,’ [Tim] Brausen said. ‘Our community tends to be a very welcoming and increasingly diverse community, and we believe our citizens will understand … Unfortunately, some of us feel like patriotism has been so politicized that it’s almost used as a weapon against people.’
His comment makes me wonder about a few things: Who originally proposed this change? Why would his citizens “understand?” What makes him think their community is “increasingly diverse” when it’s not? And why does he think that’s important?
Why do so many council members seem indifferent to this decision?
(I couldn’t find a tally of other city councils that don’t recite the pledge.)
It’s too bad when patriotism is seen as a highly politicized issue.
Published in Politics
Possibly.
Its not like I’m out burning the flag. I love the history of it and what it symbolizes for the most part. I like our history, warts and all. I love this country, it is my home.
I stand when the pledge is done, and I recite it. I don’t put my hand over heart, though. Would that civilians could do a proper salute, instead.
Do you mean a series of posts on the subject?
yes :) Please?
https://bigbangtheory.fandom.com/wiki/Sheldon_Cooper_Presents:_Fun_with_Flags
I’ll see what I can do. I’d probably need to spill over into heraldry and such. That should get @percival excited.
Closely related, mainly because so many flags contain crests, and others contain devices and/or charges.
I figure that you, @misthiocracy, and I could probably do a great series on heraldry and vexillology. Just hope nobody flags us for it.
The protestors in Hong Kong have been engaged in a little retrogressive vexillology.
They have a fondness for this one:
as they showed a couple of days ago in the Hong Kong Legislative Chamber.
In case you are having a hard time with the symbol in dexter base, it is
@arahant, I was impressed with the term for flag study that I looked it up. When I started to think about, flags send powerful messages in all sorts of arenas. I don’t want to impose, but it would be wonderful to know more about the symbolism through various time periods or examples. Please think about it.
Quarter some troops in their houses.
Vexillologists have very high opinions of their opinions. I put their opinions of Old Glory right up there with the “official” scientists who say Pluto is no longer a planet.
Sounds like a man who has pretty high opinions of his own opinions.
I do!
Have you ever thought of becoming a vexillologist?
You will find that concepts such as “belief” and “faith” are foreign to many, many people, be they leftist or conservative.
Belief and faith start with G-d and, let’s face it, G-d is not that prominent in the public square (or even in the private lives of many) at this time.
I posted the following on another thread which, I think, is pertinent to RyanF’s comment above, and also highlights the importance of the words “under God” in the pledge of allegiance. As long as the pledge is recited each morning, children will mention G-d at least once a day and may grow up with recognition that G-d is part of their lives.
Solzhenitsyn, in his memorable Templeton Prize Lecture from 1983, explained the cataclysmic disasters of the 20th century thus:
“Men have forgotten God.”
Furthermore:
“It was Dostoevsky who drew from the French Revolution and its seeming hatred of the Church the lesson that ‘revolution must necessarily begin with atheism.’ That is absolutely true. But the world had never before known a godlessness as organized, militarized, and tenaciously malevolent as that practiced by Marxism. Within the philosophical system of Marx and Lenin, and at the heart of their psychology, hatred of God is the principal driving force, more fundamental than all their political and economic pretensions. Militant atheism is not merely incidental or marginal to Communist policy; it is not a side effect, but the central pivot.”
It is worth mentioning, I think, that many conservatives, if they have not “forgotten God” are blase regarding religious faith and practice. They are naive if they think their children will not be tempted by the blandishments of leftism, which is a religion in its own right. As Bob Dylan famously sang, “Gotta Serve Somebody.” The religious impulse is basic to the human psyche and will not abide a vacuum. By extension, Breitbart’s “politics is downstream from culture” could be extended to “religious affiliation (which would include leftism) is downstream from culture as well.” Indeed, contemporary pop culture, created almost entirely by leftists, walks in lockstep with leftism and atheism, too.
Herald. Heralds are never wrong. Just ask one. Then he can opine on whether it should be “barry wavy” or “wavy barry.”