School officials threatened to be ‘lined up and shot’ after Fox News ‘misreporting’

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Raw Story

School officials threatened to be ‘lined up and shot’ after Fox News ‘misreporting’
By David Edwards
Thursday, November 21, 2013 16:11 EST



A school board member in South Dakota is calling on Fox News to apologize because he says an erroneous report led to threats that officials be “lined up and shot” over the Pledge of Allegiance.

Sioux Falls School Board member Kent Alberty told KSFY that Fox News picked up the story after a local television station reported that the board had defied a group of veterans and dropped the pledge at high schools.

“A school board there has decided there’s just no time in the day to recite the Pledge of Allegiance despite a desperate request from a local vets group to keep the pledge,” Fox News host Megyn Kelly told viewers on Nov. 14.

“The veterans, by the way, say they are not giving up,” reporter Trace Gallagher noted. “They say they will continue fighting to see if they can get the pledge reinstated.”

Read more: http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/11/21/school-officials-threatened-to-be-lined-up-and-shot-after-fox-news-misreporting/

[ForgoTheConsequence]

1. "lined up and shot"

Yet these are the same people who say you should go "live in communist North Korea if you don't like it here".

The irony.

[christx30]

2. How many people

are at risk of death or dismemberment because the pledge is not being recited?! If the answer is less than 1, I don't understand the "desperate request" portion of the story.

[global1]

3. No Time In The Day To Recite The Pledge - Really......

I just timed myself with a stopwatch reciting the Pledge. It took 10 seconds.

What is wrong with that school board? What else is going on about this?

Surely they can work in 10 seconds in their teaching plans.

[RKP5637]

5. It sounds like a lame excuse to me. Now, I'm not for prayer in school, too many

different religions and all and some not believing ... but the Pledge of Allegiance, I really don't see WTF is wrong with that. And as you say, it only takes about 10, maybe 15 seconds. All of this shit gets pretty weird after awhile.

[Journeyman]

11. I pledged allegiance to the Constitution when I was inducted into the military in the early '70s...

I haven't repeated the pledge since, and I've no intention of ever repeating it.

The way I figure it, once you pledge yourself to something, if you truly mean it, you need never do it again. In fact, to do so -- to engage in a "doctrine of continual reaffirmation" -- makes a mockery of the original vow, as only a meaningless pledge needs constant updating. I affirmed my commitment to this land and its Constitution as a young man. If I ever change my mind, I'll renounce my pledge. Until then, I consider it my word, freely given. Any attempt to make me renew it simply insults me and casts aspersions on my honor.

As for those who insist it should be recited on multiple occasions, who would prefer to see it rendered meaningless through reduction to nothing more than a rote recitation, I often wonder, if they can't trust me to keep a pledge quietly, how's my mumbling it going to change anything?

[RKP5637]

16. That, is an interesting way of looking at it, I really understand your point of view, I never

thought of it that way before ... it can become a bit mundane, over and over again in the same setting each day to the point of rote recitation with no meaning.

[BlueJazz]

25. Excellent point. I'm actually ashamed of myself for not realizing your thoughts a long time ago.

[xxqqqzme]

34. I refuse to recite the Pledge

for the very same reasons.

I will not do it. The first time worked for me.

[Sand Wind]

65. +1 nt

[jeff47]

21. Yeah, "under God" has nothing to do with prayer. (nt)

[RKP5637]

28. ha, oops, right! n/t

[KamaAina]

33. As long as they use the original version

which does not include the words "under God". Those were added in a McCarthy-era jihad against "godless Communism".

[Blue_In_AK]

39. I learned it without the "under God" part,

and that's the way I still say it if I find myself in a situation where it's being recited.

[RKP5637]

43. I was in school when they added that, and to me even at that age it was a WTF. I

recall watching the McCarthy-era jihad hearings on TV, thinking WTF is this now. I have a lot of WTF's.

[RKP5637]

44. PS: Ted Cruise reminds me of McCarthy ... it just hit me now who he reminds me of ... n/t

[caraher]

64. Plus the "under God" part ruins the continuity

"one nation, indivisible" is tight language that really drives home a unity message. I guess it's weirdly fitting that inserting "under God" would have a divisive effect on both the Pledge and the country...

[maindawg]

45. because they fucked it up

when they inserted 'under god' because in 2013 you cant proselytize in schools.

[RKP5637]

47. Yep, they sure did! n/t

[maindawg]

49. when we recited the pledge today

my student added ,' amen' at the end. I told him its not a prayer, its a pledge.
He associates the pledge with religion because of the 'under god' part.
I did the same thing as a boy.
Here is the new fight for the 2020's , under god' has got to go................

[rsdsharp]

6. I went to school in the 1960s and early 1970s

in a small town in northeastern Iowa. We didn't say the pledge after grade school (sixth grade in those days). I don't see anything "wrong" with the school board.

[sinkingfeeling]

7. You didn't read the story....

In fact, the board had sided with the veterans and voted unanimously to expand the use of the pledge for middle school students, elementary school students and at high school assemblies.

“It wasn’t dropped. That wasn’t true at all,” Alberty said. “And that is what people were reacting to was the headline – not what we actually did. And then Fox picked that story up — and again — it was the headline they used, not the actual facts of what we did at the School Board meeting.”

[maxrandb]

12. Please tell me you're kidding

you're not actually suggesting that, even if they did drop the pledge, their lives should be threatened???

This was an "erroneous" Faux News report, and it got their ass-hatted T-bagger's shorts in a wad, and then, shit for brain ass-pickles THREATENED TO ROUND UP THE SCHOOL BOARD AND FUCKING SHOOT THEM

I'm sorry, but short of the school board threatening the lives of children, I see absolutely NO justification for threats of violence.

Please tell my you're not siding with the folks that want to "line up and shoot" people over a fucking pledge!

[alfredo]

14. First you got to get the kids to stand up, face the right direction, put their right hand on

their heart, remind one kid that the other hand is the right hand, stop and yell at a boy who is acting up, then maybe you can slowly work your way through the loyalty oath.

Our morning exercises were a teacher led prayer, the pledge, reciting bible verses, and then wait for punishment to be doled out for those who didn't memorize their verse or repeated a previous one, and then class would begin. This was public school in the fifties.


My teacher beat my head against the wall for not memorizing a verse. A class mate got put in a trash can because he wouldn't recite bible verses. I can still remember his wailing. He was the only Jewish kid in our class. The teacher called him trash.

[okaawhatever]

36. Dear God. And I'm sure that teacher was convinced they were going to heaven. nt

[RKP5637]

46. They always do, they're special, they're on a mission from god and often

control freak authoritarians. ... and belong nowhere near students, many IMO should be sentenced for child abuse.

[alfredo]

48. She even spoke like the King James Bible. You knew you were in trouble when she pointed at

you and said "Woe be unto you."

[jeff47]

20. Apparently there is no time in the day for you to read the story

I just timed myself with a stopwatch reading the story. It took a 47 seconds.

What is wrong with you? What else are you not bothering to read?

Surely you can work 47 seconds into your posting so you respond to the actual story instead of the headline.

[Bradical79]

26. You get lost on the way to a teaparty rally?

I mean, taking the side of people threatening school board members while ignoring a headline and every sentence in the article except one which you completely take out of context. Sounds like you qualify for your own Conservative talk radio show.

[Ash_F]

27. I guess you weren't reciting it with heart then.

You can't just trundle through it in 10 seconds. Put some feeling in it like you mean it!

[tblue]

31. You're quoting Fox.

And I don't think this is a capital crime anyway.

[Posteritatis]

40. Ten seconds they could spend learning and not being told to recite a loyalty oath. (nt)

[mwooldri]

55. I got it under 1 second.

I'm not American. I'm English. "God Save the Queen". That's it. Pledge over. Now back to work!

[arcane1]

4. Defenders of "freedom" making death threats over not requiring the reciting of a loyalty oath.

Welcome to America

[blkmusclmachine]

8. "Freedumb" isn't what it used to be....

[RKP5637]

10. Yep, that's WTF is consistently wrong with these asses. Their solution is always the same,

violence to enforce as commanded. God I'm tired of this BS from these jerks.

[Guaguacoa]

58. Where does it say it was the vets making the threats?nt

[arcane1]

60. Where did I say it was the vets?

[Guaguacoa]

66. You said "defenders of freedom" making the threats.

Who else? Trailer trash are definitely not defenders of freedom, that's what I hear military and vets referred as.

[arcane1]

68. You would be mistaken. I put freedom in quotes for a reason.

[Guaguacoa]

70. Then that is not what you meant, however

military AND veterans are referred to as "defenders of freedom" a lot.

[arcane1]

71. Good point. I was referring to the phony patriotism of the ones saying "get shot"

The mind boggles at their cognitive dissonance

[Kelvin Mace]

9. One of these days, Fox is going to get someone killed

That said, I am NOT a big fan of mandatory loyalty oaths.

[RKP5637]

13. Probably they already indirectly (or directly) have, a lot more than we realize. IMO the same can

also be said of Beck, Limbo, Savage, etc. and the herd of them, the haters.

[Botany]

15. They already have done that.

Dr. Tiller.



Although he later denied it, show host Bill O'Reilly sometimes described him as "Tiller the Baby Killer,"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Tiller

[tblue37]

67. Been there, done that. RIP Dr. George Tiller,

murdered in church after FOX (especially Bill O) spent years demonizing him as "Dr. Tiller the baby killer."

[Mr.Bill]

17. Children being forced to recite a loyalty oath is nothing new.

There is film of it from the 1930s. I have a hard time understanding the narration though, because it is in german.

[arcane1]

18. Funny you should mention that. In the 30's the pledge didn't involve hand-over-heart.

The proper way to recite the pledge of allegiance was this way:

[Judi Lynn]

19. Thank you! So glad to see this, myself. Never, ever knew about it.

I can see now why they wanted to keep it a secret...

Simply amazing.

[arcane1]

22. Thank you for replying, thereby allowing me to catch my spelling error.

[hobbit709]

24. And it didn't have the words "under God" in it.

Look at any WWII newsreel.

[riqster]

51. Holy shit. nt

[Hekate]

30. I once wrote up a history of The Pledge for a (former) friend who sent me some truly...

... obnoxious RW religio-patriotic spam during the depths of the Bush 2 era.

This, as I recall, is what I found out and shared with my (former) friend:

The Pledge of Allegiance was a late addition to our country, and was written by a minister who was, as it happens, Socialist, and also as it happens patriotic. The occasion was the waves of new immigrants from Europe in the late 19th-early 20th century, the resulting waves of their children in public schools, and a genuine desire to integrate them into American public life and an American ethos.

The Pledge of Allegiance went through a couple of iterations, but it gradually caught on, and was useful in classrooms. "Look, we're all Americans here! Even little Guiseppe and Yossel!"

It was recited with hand and arm aloft, as the photos show. That ended with the rise of European fascism, for obvious reasons. The American hand went over the heart, after that.

God was not in the early Pledge. I started school in the 1950s and learned to say the Pledge without reference to a Deity. That changed when someone said to President Eisenhower that any little Muscovite could say a similar pledge, and after all wasn't one of the distinctions of Communism was that it was Godless Communism? All of a sudden "under God" was added, and I and my little classmates stumbled and fumbled until we got it right.

So there you have it: the Pledge of Allegiance began long after the foundation of the US as a civic ritual with the intent of unifying and integrating new citizens into American culture; the author was a minister who left God out of it; God was added during the Cold War; and the thing is not set in stone. All along the way, certain people have opted out (almost always for religious reasons), and have taught their children to do so as well, and it is perfectly legal to do so.

This woman doesn't speak to me any more, but some of those on her list wrote to thank me.

[Mr.Bill]

37. I have read that the "under God" phrase

was lobbied for by the Knights of Columbus, a Catholic men's organization.

[Hekate]

57. Either way, it didn't show up until sometime in mid-50s, after I had already memorized...

... it the other way.

[Mr.Bill]

63. Right.

I think it happened around 1954.

[Madmiddle]

23. The Pledge is about

"Liberty and Justice for All." Sounds like force is being used on a school to do something they, or someone, don't want to. So, say it don't do it? These days it seems not everyone is on the "To The Republic" wagon. I am sure the town folk and the school officials will figure this out. And they should be left alone in so doing.

[JimboBillyBubbaBob]

29. I really think it is a prayer...

...practiced by this civil religion called patriotism.

[MyNameGoesHere]

32. I am only for it if they bring back the Bellamy salute.

And we all all become xenophobic racist.

#### the pledge, it is stupid and makes me think about 1933 Nuremberg rally when I see it or hear it.

[marble falls]

41. No offense. I support your right to sit out the Pledge, I did too in the sixties. But I also ...

served in the USN in the seventies and while I never stopped being against the war and I support your right to burn it, the flag still gives me chills when it comes down the street, and I stand for it and the pledge.

You really need to look at the Nuremberg rallies again, especially the '34 "Triumph of Will" rally. There has been nothing like it in this country except for the Bundestag meetings (much much much smaller of course) and Klan rallies in the twenties and thirties. And that's a good thing. Like GB Shaw (I think) said, "Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel", but that does not mean all patriots are racist or scoundrels.

At worst the Pledge reminds us of an ideal free society we've yet to attain. While the "under G*d" clause is an invention of a racist (along with the Fascist salute which never caught on), to me it seems like the Deism of the founding fathers and not an endorsement of any sort Christianity.

Say it, say it with modifications, don't say it, but the rest of us saying it does not make us all a bunch of jack booted Übermensch.

[MyNameGoesHere]

50. I said I was reminded

or felt that way. Never said you were. I understand about your USN experience, I too served. I just grew tired of the nationalistic flavor of patriotism. Took me a long while to see that most did it out of automation rather than true feelings.

[marble falls]

59. I get your point. We both have an extreme dislike of jingoism. Thank you for talking about this ...

with me. Thank you for your service.

[nomorenomore08]

53. +1

Skeptical as I am of the concept of patriotism - I find it mostly indistinguishable from nationalism - I don't consider it to be rooted in pure evil either.

[marble falls]

35. Fair and balanced and totally without factual basis. Fox, gotta resist taling them seriously.

Last edited Fri Nov 22, 2013, 07:58 PM - Edit history (1)

[Mr.Bill]

38. I have no problem with cosenting adults reciting the pledge.

I just think it's foolish to require six year old kids to pledge "allegiance" to something when they don't even know the meaning of the word.

[defacto7]

42. I think that's the point.

Make the children repeat it, make it feel like a necessity to belong to the group, plant the seed of an unquestioned allegiance even before they know what they are saying. It's an ancient mechanism.

[CFLDem]

52. Lined up and shot.

How patriotic...

[nomorenomore08]

56. Was it H. Rap Brown who said "Violence is as American as cherry pie"? I think he had a point... n/t

[nomorenomore08]

54. "Amer'ca: love it or we'll kill you!"

[madrchsod]

61. my school did the same thing and no one cared

really dumb assed thing to do to begin with. someone decided it was ok then years later someone came to their senses.

[IrishAyes]

62. On the last Veterans Day, I - the only known lefty in miles - was also the only person on my block

to hang a flag. The teabaggers couldn't be bothered, but they'd gladly beat me over the head with their own flags or maybe bibles, for not mimicking their politics. I've also noticed that while they like to attend rallies and wave the flag, they spurn the true meaning and turn it into a symbol of hate.

[warrant46]

69. Absolutely True about that Scum

Its Dick Cheney Patriotism !!!

The Scene Massive Flag Waving and John Phillip Souza played at 100 decibels

Dick on You: YOU are fit enough to die for our Country

Dick on humself: I have other priorities