11th March 2003, 9:38 PM
Yeah, sorry LL :D.
Anyway, regarding this flag thing (which I think I didn't even give a full opinion on yet), while I personally see no problem with it in there (I see a larger problem with having a pledge at all, because it's useless), I myself am hardly going to put any effort into defending it in it's current state. If I'm going to say it's pointless, I might as well not completely contradict myself by making a huge issue out of it myself, no? As I said before, I don't see why "under God" is any more offensive than the phrase "I pledge alliegence". Both are making you say something you may not actually believe in. Most of the time, both are completely ignored and not even thought about by the people repeating it. Anyway, it's no biggy if it's ditched or not to me because the pledge isn't the center of my faith, it just has a line regarding my faith in it. At the same time, my old statements about how benign stuff like that really is shouldn't be ignored. Since the pledge has no emotion behind it when recited, no one should feel like it's statements are being forced on them. No one should be getting upety saying "it's wrong to force people to take a pledge of loyalty" (like other countries have said regarding it), because the government really isn't going to make sure that the students believe a single thing that's in the pledge. There's no force behind it at all. You can even NOT recite it and almost always get away with it. No one is going to drag you away or anything. Mental? Pfft, don't make me laugh.
Anyway, regarding this flag thing (which I think I didn't even give a full opinion on yet), while I personally see no problem with it in there (I see a larger problem with having a pledge at all, because it's useless), I myself am hardly going to put any effort into defending it in it's current state. If I'm going to say it's pointless, I might as well not completely contradict myself by making a huge issue out of it myself, no? As I said before, I don't see why "under God" is any more offensive than the phrase "I pledge alliegence". Both are making you say something you may not actually believe in. Most of the time, both are completely ignored and not even thought about by the people repeating it. Anyway, it's no biggy if it's ditched or not to me because the pledge isn't the center of my faith, it just has a line regarding my faith in it. At the same time, my old statements about how benign stuff like that really is shouldn't be ignored. Since the pledge has no emotion behind it when recited, no one should feel like it's statements are being forced on them. No one should be getting upety saying "it's wrong to force people to take a pledge of loyalty" (like other countries have said regarding it), because the government really isn't going to make sure that the students believe a single thing that's in the pledge. There's no force behind it at all. You can even NOT recite it and almost always get away with it. No one is going to drag you away or anything. Mental? Pfft, don't make me laugh.
"On two occasions, I have been asked [by members of Parliament], 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?' I am not able to rightly apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question." ~ Charles Babbage (1791-1871)