[Vision2020] City Council and the Pledge

[Sunil Ramalingam]

Donovan,

You often include in your posts the information that you are a political 
science graduate.  Do you have any evidence based on your education that 
indicates a relationship between saying the pledge and improving the quality 
of governance?

Or is this a faith-based initiative?

Does Congress repeat the Pledge daily?  If so, is there a positive 
relationship between that recitation and what they are doing to our country 
daily?

Sunil


>From: Donovan Arnold <donovanjarnold2005 at yahoo.com>
>To: DonaldH675 at aol.com, vision2020 at moscow.com
>Subject: Re: [Vision2020] City Council and the Pledge
>Date: Mon, 23 Jan 2006 21:27:01 -0800 (PST)
>
>"Donovan,
>   I  strongly disagree with you. In my opinion it is a waste of time for 
>our  elected officials to spend their time on so trivial a matter as the  
>flag pledge when at most of the meetings I've  attended time has  been at a 
>premium."
>
>   Don,
>
>  Sorry, but that is just  lame. Honestly, if teachers have time to say the 
>15 second pledge  everyday, as does the county, state, and federal 
>governments, I am sure  our ever urgent council members can squeeze it into 
>their schedules  twice a month.
>
>  The reality is that the  "time  issue"  of  banning the  pledge  is  
>simply an  excuse for those members of the council that disagree with 
>saying the  pledge(or some aspect of it). And rather then sitting there and 
>not  saying it, they just banned everyone from saying it.
>
>  I have  never ever heard the argument, other than from John Dickinson, 
>that not  saying the pledge saves valuable time. That is just insane. 
>Sorry, I am  not so dumb to take that bait.
>
>   What they are doing is disrespectful to our country. It deserves 15 
>seconds of attention before bi monthly meetings.
>
>   _DJA
>
>
>
>DonaldH675 at aol.com wrote:          Donovan,
>   I  strongly disagree with you. In my opinion it is a waste of time for 
>our  elected officials to spend their time on so trivial a matter as the  
>flag pledge when at most of the meetings I've  attended time has  been at a 
>premium.
>   Granted other people attach more  importance to such rituals than I do. 
>I spent 20 years in the Marine  Corps, 12 of them as an infantry officer, 
>and I suspect I have as much  respect for our flag as anyone on the list. I 
>cringe to see it flown  disrespectfully from the antenna of a pickup truck, 
>or on a jacket or  pair of jeans, or tatooed on someone's arm, leg, or less 
>visible place,  and so on and so on.
>   But realistically, pledges and oaths  are meaningless as professions of 
>loyalty and even less meaningful to  attempt to keep unworthy (by whatever 
>description) persons from places  of public trust. You can bet that 
>Aldridge Ames had no reservations  whatsoever about saying the pledge or 
>taking oaths. I bet even the 9/11  hijackers said the pledge in their 
>flight schools if it was recited  there and would have taken any oath 
>required in order to deceive or  confuse their opponents.
>   So we each have our own reasons  for wanting or not wanting certain 
>actions taken or not taken. Let's  not identify those who disagree with us 
>with the issues themselves and  consequently lose our perspective on the 
>issues.
>
>   Don   Huskey
>
>"First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight   you, then 
>you win." Mahatma Gandhi
>
>
>
>
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