William Katz:  Urgent Agenda

HOME      ABOUT     CONTACT 

 

 

 

 

NO RESPECT – AT 10:01 A.M. ET:  This is happening at a generally conservative school in a very conservative state.  Imagine what's happening elsewhere.  From the Daily Caller:

A veteran in the student government at the University of Wyoming has been denied in his quest to have meetings open with the U.S. Pledge of Allegiance, reportedly out of the fear it would offend international students, Campus Reform reports.

Cory Schroeder, a six-year Army veteran who has served tours in Afghanistan and Iraq, was elected in May to serve a year-long term as a senator on the Associated Students of the University of Wyoming, the university’s student legislative body. He told Campus Reform that he became upset when he attended meetings and discovered they did not open with the option to say the Pledge of Allegiance.

Schroeder says that when inquired about opening meetings with the Pledge, he was told it was a “very touchy subject” because the Pledge might offend the body’s two international students.

How about courteously informing the international students that they're in America now, and that the pledge is meant for American students, with no disrespect toward anyone else.  That sounds easy, doesn't it?

Instead of opening with the Pledge, the body instead takes the time to read its mission statement, which aspires to “accurate representation, professional interaction with campus programs and organization [sic], and responsible effective leadership.”

Schroeder says he was promised time to speak about the matter during a future meeting, but that the issue never made it on the agenda before the school year’s end. He was also told he could author a bill seeking to insert 20 seconds for the Pledge into each meeting, but he said he disliked such a course of action because it would be a “long process” that would be picked apart by a “liberal standing committee.”

COMMENT:  I have no strong feelings about opening meetings with the Pledge.  It's voluntary, but it certainly should be permitted.  This line about "offending" foreign students is bogus.  It's just the old left doing the old left thing, and trying to explain it away.  They're so boring. 

Foreign students might actually have more respect for Americans if we showed a little pride in country now and then.

June 19, 2014