There's something wonderful about children's purity of spirit when they are passionate about something. This is an interview with a 10-year old boy in Arkansas who has decided that he won't say the Pledge of Allegiance until we live up to the words - particularly in allowing equality for gay people. He's very articulate. Too bad more of us don't have the courage to stand up (or in his case sit down) for what we think is right. He's not gay, by the way, he just thinks it's wrong that everyone doesn't have equal rights.
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If only politicians were like him.
He's a courageous and ethical boy! I applaud him.
What an awesome kid! West Fork is just down the road from me, and I never even heard about this.
I think he will definitely be in law school soon.
Isn't it strange that I was talking about this boy with three other people who were upset about the way he talked back to the teacher. Where was the respect? True we were former teachers so maybe that is where we were coming from. Standing up for your rights is one thing but being rude is another.
Awesome. I never said it when I was a kid.
Whatever this extremely precocious boy thinks, he was disrespectful to those in authority over him. And now the national media are applauding his heroics (Although I do think the reporter was pretty patronizing). I really feel for teachers, especially substitutes.
When my kids were in Christian school one of the children decided that he would no longer say the pledge of allegiance because his understanding of Scripture was that he was to pledge his allegiance to God and no other. He acted upon it by standing with the other children, but not pledging. These Christian teachers handled it brilliantly by not making it an issue. So no one ended up calling CNN.
It's pretty clear from the interview that this child has some other developmental issues that aren't being addressed -- i.e. he's far beyond his peers in many respects. That's EXACTLY the child who needs to understand and respect authority more than most because he has such potential to get into situations that are emotionally far beyond his age ability to comprehend and react appropriately.
One wonders whether he would have done this if the regular teacher had been present.
The video didn't work for me, but I too applaud the clear vision of this boy. And 'disrespecting' authority is not wrong in itself, and can certainly be done in a respectful way. Since I didn't see the video, I can't comment on how he did it.
The Iron Curtain and Berlin Wall would never have come down without disrespect for authority - just two of countless examples of human rights achieved through dissent.
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