I'm Mike Fitzsimmons with commentary on 920 - KXLY...

Three eighth graders at a Minneapolis middle school were recently suspended for not standing during the recitation of the pledge of Allegiance. The American Civil Liberties Union sent a sharply-worded rebuke to the principal of that school, because school policy requires that students stand during the recitation of the Pledge, even though they need not actually participate. The ACLU is right of course. There are many U.S. Supreme Court rulings over the last few decades that prohibit punishment of students who refuse to participate in the Pledge. My question isn't about what the law says, it's about why eighth graders wouldn't want to.

Young teens, unless their minds have been poisoned by their parents, rarely give much thought to what it means to recite the Pledge of Allegiance. Unless they have been exposed to ungrateful anti-American rhetoric by mom and dad, it's highly unlikely that thirteen year olds have fashioned an opinion about their country. Kids that age don't dwell on notions like freedom and honor very much. In the absence of adult influence, kids have other things on their minds. To be sure, they like to make waves when they can. Kids that age like being defiant, especially if they think their parents would back them up ... but few of that age group have learned enough history, digested enough philosophy, or lived enough life, to have formed any valid core values that might manifest themselves in thoughtful dissent.

Indeed, as one of the three middle schoolers observed, it should be a matter of choice whether anyone participates in the recitation of the Pledge. The question is, how does one, at age thirteen, arrive at such a cynical choice, unless some adult has polluted his view of country? Certainly this child has no quarrel with his nation. Certainly the freedom that defines an American kid is without parallel in all the world. Certainly the privileges that such a kid enjoys would not be possible were it not for sacrifices of generations before him, which he neither understands or values. Certainly he is ignorant of the meaning of the pledge he so foolishly dismisses. Clearly his parents, if they justify his defiance, have taught him by their example that the only concern he need value in his young life, is what's in it for him. Apparently devoid of appreciation of ideals that inspire people the world over, these three kids emulate the deplorable citizenship of the adults who have influence over them. It's a pity that they will not be permitted to become better Americans than the ones who raised them.

With commentary on 920-KXLY, I'm Mike Fitzsimmons