Me too, I started in High School… at the rare event that I go to a sporting event I would stand for the anthem, but never at school.
It seemed like a silly custom to me, however I think I would indulge people from time-to-time, only because I would stand for the Canadian’s anthem, or some other friendly country out of “respect”.
carnivorousplant:
What’s the environment there? Is this kid going to get good amount of negative attention at school, do you think?
Good for him that he has a social conscience. But I do worry about the potential for disruption at school. Next week there may be pro-life students doing the same thing and similarly telling their teachers to jump off a bridge.
It was stupid of the substitute to call for the pledge (the school does not require it) and to make an issue out of it. But the parents knew this was coming and could have done more to head it off. The boy says that he planned his sit-down with his parents beforehand. Why didn’t the parents call the substitute teacher (the families knew each other) or the school? Letting the kid sit there as a spectacle and then contacting CNN a lot more quickly than they ever contacted the school seems sketchy to me. I’m not saying that the parents set this up as a publicity stunt, but they seem comfortable letting it become one.
Quoted wrong post*
Ok, so since we are in Great Debate, couldn’t this be used as an argument towards the consequences those children inherent over their adoptive gay parents?
It’s also possible some kids at school may ‘adopt’ him in their groups, or notice and be friendly with him now that they know. Ten is a little young for children not to be ‘childish’ about sexuality I guess. Kids I knew who got any notoriety, (that didn’t have to do with anything bad), when they were young turned out to be… “pro-active” and generally liked in later life.
Edit: I mean, every child has a struggle. I don’t think this kid is faceing death in the face. Only a monster would kill a kid, and a monster would just find another reason to do so anyway. Maybe it’s just where I live.
I think it’s all a hoax to get publicity for some Reality TV show.
I don’t know. West Fork is near Fayetteville where the University of Arkansas main campus is, so there we aren’t talking about hillbillies. On the other hand, it is near the Oklahoma border.
Here is a local link. The Arkansas Times is a liberal publication, weekly I believe, staffed by remnants of the Arkansas Gazette, a liberal newspaper killed during the Clinton era in a newspaper war with the Conservative Arkansas Democrat.
This happened in early October. Mama twittered about it, and the straight parents are apparently active in the gay rights movement. A liberal oasis near the college town. 
The pledge of allegiance shouldn’t be foisted on children at all, regardless of whether it contains the passage ‘under god’. It’s coercive and unecessary.
It’s probably force of habit for most of them.
To what purpose?
While I agree with the sentiments, I hate this kind of publicity mongering. And while I concede a child COULD do this on his own, it strains my own credulity that the parents weren’t a major factor in getting this set up and put in the spot light.
Meh…
-XT
To avoid the sort of confrontation that eventually happened. To defuse the issue instead of riding it.
What I read about it stated pretty clearly that the parents talked about it to their gay activist friends and the gay activist friends alerted the media. So it’s possible that the parents had something to do with the spotlight, but that’s an essential part of Democracy, it’s why the Fourth Estate exists.
Yeah…but did they talk to their child about it before the stunt? Did their ‘gay activist friends’ also talk to the child about it? It smacks of a planned stunt to me, with the child being lead to it.
Mind, this isn’t to say the child wasn’t fully on board with doing it, nor that the child didn’t understand all the issues involved. I’m not even really that upset about it being a child they used…what I dislike is ANY kind of publicity stunt like this. Even in a good cause, which I think this is.
Oh well…different strokes for different folks I guess.
-XT
Doesn’t that defeat the point of civil disobedience?
As far as the publicity goes…
http://www.arktimes.com/articles/articleviewer.aspx?ArticleID=2f5d7a3b-c72a-446b-8d20-3823aa79c021
This really is not a debate.
It might be MPSIMS worthy, but as it seems to be a bunch of folks expressing opinions, I’m sending it to IMHO.
[ /Modding ]
Thanks Carni! 
Interesting findings.
I saw the video on AOL’s welcome screen, after I saw it, (I think), live and googled it for the video to share with you guys. I’m starting to feel like the that forwards everyone kitten pictures with funny captions…
I’m still glad I did because I’m still learning, and I’m old. I guess it’s just sensational talking points for… ‘AOL users’.
There is NO WAY this kid came up with this on his own—Some adult is using the child for publicity, and I guess the saucer-balloon thing is too passe by now…
Next up, a six year old who wont eat any ice cream until all Norwegian Sexx Workers get paid dental insurence.
I teach Unitarian Sunday School - 3rd and 4th graders. A very few of them would come up with something like this - I can think of two forth grade girls that this would not shock me at all. They get lessons in civil disobedience as early as Kindergarten in Religious Education classes - get taught about non-violent resistance. And many of them started going to gay pride marches in strollers.
Did you watch the interview? The way he was answering the questions showed that he was capable of reasoning it through and understanding the issue, so why shouldn’t he have come up with it for himself? He’s a kid, not a moron. I’ve taught many kids who could easily have come up with this sort of idea for themselves. Hell, I *was *a kid who would have done this sort of thing, and with the kind of people who post to this board, I’m a little surprised that no-one else thinks he’s fairly normal.
Also, even if he is being used for publicity (which could just as easily have happened after he started it all by himself), I find it kind of offensive that you’re comparing the issue of equal rights with some nutjob family who just wanted to be on TV.
If my son or daughter did this all on their own, I’d be very proud of them.
Then I’d tell them to cut it the hell out, and stand up to recite the Pledge.
I want my children to learn to love America before they start worrying about how to change it.
Children are not miniature adults. Adults don’t know how to responsibly address these issues, and I’m going to allow/enable/encourage a ten-year-old child grandstand in order to influence public policy? I think not.
Let children be children. They’ll have 60+ years to be politically aware and socially conscious and all that jazz.
I am not saying that there has never been a child who is much more aware and concerned with social justice issues than is the norm for their age, and just maybe you were one of them when you were young, or maybe you just want to portray yourself that way now-----That dosent mean I have to believe that is the case in this situation, (the kid in the story, not necc. yourself and your youthful beliefs) and qiute frankly, I dont…
If my opinion offends you, I dont know what to say, but I hope you dont lose sleep over what I happen to think.
It’s hard to completely love your country when there are still citizens that get treated as being not quite as equal as everyone else.
What if you let your child be a child and this is what they come up with? A civil protest for equal rights? Sure it might be an “adult” topic, but if your kid did truly come up with it on his own, why would you want to stifle such a thing?