So what do the rest of us do during the prayer?

[struggle4progress]

Tuesday, May 13, 2014 12:15 am
McClatchy-Tribune News Service
By John M. Crisp

In a recent column, I suggested that our nation might be better off if we didn’t spend so much time reciting the Pledge of Allegiance, a ritual that originated from a combination of xenophobia and a desire to sell flags and flagpoles to every school ...

But, surprisingly, 84 percent of the email in the response to the column was sympathetic. A school principal from Indiana said he was required by state law to lead his school in the Pledge over the intercom every morning for 29 years. He hated the monotonous groupthink ...

An 85-year-old veteran from Missouri expressed his discomfort at the rote repetition of the Pledge, adding that when the text reaches “with liberty and justice for all,” he always adds “who can pay for it” ...

Accordingly, the Supreme Court probably shouldn’t assume citizens’ unalloyed support of its ruling that the town of Greece, N.Y., had not violated the Constitution by opening its monthly town hall meetings for a decade with a series of sectarian Christian prayers ...

http://www.theintell.com/opinion/op-ed/so-what-do-the-rest-of-us-do-during-the/article_29fd7e0b-1200-51e5-a283-4ffe0d44d43d.html

[ejpoeta]

1. I don't do the pledge. i am girl scout assistant leader and stand

uncomfortably as the girls do it. I don't dissuade others, just don't do it myself.

[grilled onions]

2. Monotony

Every day,every school day it got to the point the entire quote meant little. It made little sense to me that we fretted concern over a piece of cloth--idolizing it while tearing our neighbor,other states and other countries to shred every chance we could. It seemed to pound into kids heads that nothing is more sacred than this flag but it was ok to pollute the land and the sky. It claimed our free we all were, how everyone was equal but five minutes later some of the "reciters" were making jokes about other ethnic groups, talking about some who lived on the wrong side of the tracks. They felt comfortable bad mouthing minorities but don't you dare so anything wrong about "the flag". I always thought "human first, cloth second" but to say so in public turned you into a traitor.

[nil desperandum]

3. Cloth first

For me the flag is more than cloth, it's the one symbol that represents those who served before me, and with me who can't speak anymore because their voices have been silenced in their service to their nation.

They gave their last full measure and died on behalf of what was purported to be a grateful nation...ironically that grateful nation has often shown in its' gratitude in a fashion that leads me to believe grateful is a bit more of a subjective term than I had imagined.

But I digress.

Having said that, it is stupid to require a bunch of school kids to recite it every single day without context or meaning. I understand the concept behind saying it to start the school day but it would be better if the school day just started with the appropriate daily message and moved on to education. Otherwise as you point out it's a meaningless bit of blather before kids get back to being kids.

[rock]

4. For some reason

I think about sheep. And I'm not particularly fond of them.

[cbayer]

6. Lol, did you have some kind of sheep related traumatic episode?

Besides appearing to be amazingly stupid, I kind of like them - both for wearing and eating.

[cbayer]

5. "Few forces are more imperious than the sanctimonious combination of piety and patriotism."

Isn't that the truth.

My husband has told me that in the UK, people start clearing their throats and coughing when someone presents a prayer in a public venue such as a legislative assembly.

I kind of like that idea.

[digonswine]

7. I only ask that my students stand and say it, or be silent-

Kids, generally, do not have the historical backdrop to be able to appreciate it. I, personally, think it rings hollow.
The concept of teaching civics to the young is equally a waste of time-or can be. As I became an adult, history meant more and more to me--when I was younger, I could not relate quite as much. I am 40 now and lead the students in this waste of time.
I would suggest that they write their own and defend it. It is a meaningless jumble of words to them as it is.
I would like to hear them recite their own versions through the announcement speaker. It might make them think about it a little and leave it open to creativity. They might get to hear a new one every day.
Or they might just reorder the words a bit. Hard to say.
I know one thing---it is ingrained and a habitual show of "respect" to something they can't grasp.