Subject: re
From: Jive Monkey (monkey_jive@hotmail.com)
Date: Thu Dec 21 2000 - 20:11:39 GMT
--- “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.”And why did I begin this with a quote from the Pledge of Allegiance, something which every good American knows? To correct the mistaken assumption that this is a democracy. It is not; it is a republic. As such, each state must select representatives which reflect the opinions of their people. ---
a republic it is indeed. however the officials of that republic are chosen by a vote of the people (an indirect process in the case of the president, but i haven't heard anyone claim that, given florida, bush shouldn't be the president; rather, he shouldn't have gotten florida, and therefore should not be president), and hence it is a democratic republic. voting someone into office doesn't give them license to charge out and do whatever they please. and just because the congress is predominately gop and florida's congress is predominately gop doesn't automatically make the gop candidate the winner. if it did, then how could anyone besides the candidate of the party in power ever be elected to any office? do you think we should all just lie down and salute the flag whenever trouble starts brewing?
ps i despise the practice of making schoolchildren recite the pledge of allegiance. it is absolutely sickening to hear a bunch of little kids pledging allegiance to a piece of fabric, when they don't even realize what they're saying or why. why don't we just have schoolkids sign oaths of allegiance to the president and commit themselves to the army? i stopped saying it when i became old enough to realize i was being warped by something that seemed like it was out 1984. i also knew it was my right as an american to not recite that terrible piece of propaganda, and i was glad for that, but if we're a free country, why should anyone ever have to pledge allegiance to the flag? while i'm on my newest soapbox (yes, there is a lot of tide floating around in here, isn't there?), i'd like to say i support flagburning, too, since so many men fought and died to protect our right to freedom of speech and freedom to protest, and i sure as hell hope that none of them ever died for a flag.
andy ac _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com
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This archive was generated by hypermail 2b25 : Tue Jan 02 2001 - 18:02:58 GMT