10 Year Old Hero-Refuses To Recite Pledge Of Allegiance At School-In Support Of Gay Community

[kpete]

There’s a 10-year-old lad, a fifth-grader at West Fork Elementary, who decided he wasn’t going to say the Pledge of Allegiance at school anymore because there was no liberty or justice for all in America, as the pledge’s rote recitation asserts.

He’d concluded that gay people didn’t get equal justice or liberty in this country and that he was loath to mouth something suggesting they did.
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/11/12/803891/-10-Year-Old-Hero-in-Arkansas
............

A boy and his flag
Why Will won’t pledge.


Will's family has a number of gay friends. In recent years, Laura Phillips said, they've been trying to be a straight ally to the gay community, going to the pride parades and standing up for the rights of their gay and lesbian neighbors. They've been especially dismayed by the effort to take away the rights of homosexuals – the right to marry, and the right to adopt. Given that, Will immediately saw a problem with the pledge of allegiance.

“I've always tried to analyze things because I want to be lawyer,” Will said. “I really don't feel that there's currently liberty and justice for all.”

After asking his parents whether it was against the law not to stand for the pledge, Will decided to do something. On Monday, Oct. 5, when the other kids in his class stood up to recite the pledge of allegiance, he remained sitting down. The class had a substitute teacher that week, a retired educator from the district, who knew Will's mother and grandmother. Though the substitute tried to make him stand up, he respectfully refused. He did it again the next day, and the next day. Each day, the substitute got a little more cross with him. On Thursday, it finally came to a head. The teacher, Will said, told him that she knew his mother and grandmother, and they would want him to stand and say the pledge.

............

Given that his protest is over the rights of gays and lesbians, the taunts have taken a predictable bent. “In the lunchroom and in the hallway, they've been making comments and doing pranks, and calling me gay,” he said. “It's always the same people, walking up and calling me a gaywad.”

http://www.arktimes.com/articles/articleviewer.aspx?ArticleID=2f5d7a3b-c72a-446b-8d20-3823aa79c021

[bluethruandthru]

1. What a great kid! His bravery is amazing. n/t

[Sebastian Doyle]

2. I can predict the right wing response to this one already

"SODOMITES HATE AMERIKKA!11!1!!1!!!"

[canetoad]

3. Here is a video

of Will Phillips

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GgC9HsuAwaw

..."It's about civil rights, stooopid..."

[Iggo]

5. ..."It's about civil rights..."

I'm sayin'.

[Smarmie Doofus]

4. I'm adopting him. He's my son. nt

[hunter]

6. I wasn't a hero at 10...

My mom was a JW crazy pacifist.

Fine by me. That was the very least of my ten year old asperger syndrome worries. Everyone already knew I was a freak. If I didn't say the pledge because my mom thought it was buying a ticket to hell it was no big deal. I probably would have been watching some insect crawling across my desk anyways...

[Odin2005]

10. LOL, this Aspie was getting in trouble for throwing a fit over "under God", LOL!

[Withywindle]

7. "...and a little child shall lead them..."

Bravo to him!


(I didn't say the Pledge as a kid either. I'd never been brought up with any rote recitations, and had a lot of them in school all of a sudden, and couldn't remember which ones I was supposed to say "Amen" at the end of or not, and finally I just decided none of it meant anything to me. My parents always backed me.)

[Javaman]

8. There is a tidal wave of change coming and it's certainly not with our generation.

I hope I'm still around to see it.

[Odin2005]

9. Great kid!

:D

[mrmpa]

11. sorry I can't agree with him

I agree with him that there needs to be rights for gays here in the US of A, however as a teacher, he has a right to protest but not by showing disrespect for the flag. What he needs to do, along with his parents is work to make the words of the Pledge of Allegiance true for all. I also believe that the Supreme Court has ruled on this issue and in schools, only students who are Jehovah witnesses do not have to stand for the Pledge.

Our young people are being taught disrespect for anything and anyone in authority. You have the right to disagree and dislike, but the discourse needs to be respectful. What he is doing and is being taught to do, is no less than what the right does daily, i.e. If I don't like it I'll just thumb my nose at it.

[dsc]

12. You are dead wrong

Yes, it was Jehovah's Witnesses who litigated the first case but that by no means means that it is limited to them. People have an absolute right not to say the Pledge, it isn't a loyalty oath after all.

[LooseWilly]

13. I stopped saying the pledge when I was 13 or 14.

Maybe it was because my father was from Iran, and so I'd spent the previous 3 or 4 years looking at people wearing shirts with Mickey Mouse essentially flipping off half my family. Maybe it was because I couldn't help noticing the rise of the "evil towel head" archetype/stereotype. Maybe it was because I was offended that my mom told me to pretend that I was Italian so that I wouldn't be in jeopardy of physical/psychological taunts/violence (I guess a mother worries that her 10 year old son may not have the fortitude to tell other kids to go fuck themselves...)

I salute this child. And if I were substitute teaching in a class and a kid told me that he wasn't saying the pledge of allegiance for those reasons, I'd cancel the pledge entirely for the whole class, and tell them all that it was because he is right. Because he is right.

The flag is a symbol of the country. The flag deserves respect as the country deserves respect. The country should either get its rhetoric in line with its practical public policy, or it should learn to deal with being disrespected as a hypocrite.

I might have to look into chipping some money in toward that kid's future college tuition. I seem to be saving money now that so few Democratic politicians seem to merit any donations...