Judge: School Pledge Is Unconstitutional

[amsterdam]

thats the price you pay for being worlds most successfull country ever.

amsterdam Reviewed by amsterdam on 09-16-2005. Judge: School Pledge Is Unconstitutional Judge: School Pledge Is Unconstitutional September 15, 2005 4:08 AM EDT SAN FRANCISCO - An atheist seeking to strike the words "under God" from the Pledge of Allegiance in public schools has won a major battle in his quest to force the U.S. Supreme Court to take up the issue again. U.S. District Judge Lawrence Karlton sided with atheist Michael Newdow in ruling Wednesday that the pledge's reference to God violates the rights of children in three school districts to be "free from a Rating: 5

[Euphoric]

i dont really think public schools serve a vital function.

the dumbest people ive met graduated high school...coincidentally the smartest ones i know DIDNT

so what difference does it make if theyre told god is real?
if they're going to think for themselves they will. if not, theyll probably be christian anyway.

[beachguy in thongs]

If you live in America and don't question how or why we're the melting pot of the world, or why your pathetic life is even occuring, or you don't ponder why you weren't born in Uzbekistan rather than where you actually were, or don't recognize your fore-fathers by not even acknowledging the fact that someone had to put ,even, them here, then I'd say you're an imbecile.

[Fengzi]

I wrote, "Those Buddhist monks from Thailand are NOT qualified to speak for Americans. Their calling people that are in favor of separation of church and state 'evil' is ridiculous."

Just to clarify a little better:
The fundamentalist Christians that were opposed to the park's Hispanic religous statue would probably be in favor of mixing religion and government as long as the religion was their's. Possibly, the Buddhists were trying to say this, and it was misunderstood. In any case, religous statues, of any kind, do not belong in public parks.

Actually the monks I spoke with were referring to whether or not the statue itself was evil, not neccesarily about the fundemantalist Christians who oposed the statue. Nor was ther any discussion about the seperation of church and state as this really wasn't what the controvery was about. Queztacoatl is a symbol from ancient Mayan times and few people took it to have any religious signifigance at all. Just a few hard core Christians who were pissed because hundreds of years ago Mayans would offer sacrifices to it and therefore it was "evil".

What they meant is that an object can be neither evil or good until somebody labels it as so. The fundamentalist Christians labled the statue as evil therebye creating the evil. Kind of like the old "if a tree falls in the woods, and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?" type of idea.

The monks themselves were actually American citizens. I interviewed them at a local temple, not in Thailand itself. So I would consider them qualified to discuss this issue.

Ironically most people in San Jose really hate the statue because it cost thousands of dollars of taxpayers money and literally looks like a pile of shit. See what I mean??

[Euphoric]

damn thats an evil statue! whats it got to say about american soceity? there was another evil statue put up in NYC at ground zero also...

[GHoSToKeR]

Congratulations Amsterdam!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

You've successfully given the two most ignorant statements ever to grace these message boards!!!!!

Now, you have a choice of three prizes!!! Will you go for the brand new complete set of professional golf clubs, the trip for two to Ibiza or a shiny new car? What will it be? Tick tock, tick tock....

[Euphoric]

OWNED.

[Fengzi]

People mention that children would be ridiculed if they leave the class or refuse to say the pledge. I don't see why they should leave or refuse to say it at all. Just don't say the words "One Nation under God". When I was a kid I would say "One Nation" and then "Indivisable...", just leaving out the " under God" part. No one ever knew and I never felt that hearing those words was trying to coerce me to become religious. If you are so weak minded that hearing those words spoken by others is causing you mental distress you have a lot more problems than just the Pledge.

[amsterdam]

it's sad.

thankfully this will be reversed by the new supreme court in the coming months and years.

[WalkaWalka]

The words should be be sticken from the pledge or be optional but the whole arguement is pretty petty on both sides