KELLEY COMPARED PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE REQUIREMENTS TO NAZI GERMANY
"[Senator Mady] Reiter took offense when Sen. Steve Kelley, DFL-Hopkins, compared a Pledge of Allegiance requirement to the rituals of Nazi Germany.
Kelley said he believes the veterans in the committee room fought to ensure that the United States never would see the 'lack of liberty' that Nazi Germany imposed upon its people." Source: Star Tribune, February 28, 2002
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This is horrible.
Kelley said he believes the veterans in the committee room fought to ensure that the United States never would see the 'lack of liberty' that Nazi Germany imposed upon its people." Source: Star Tribune, February 28, 2002
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This is horrible.
4 Comments:
Any reason why your quote isn't locatable on the Strib site?
Since we're digging up old quotes, here's another one:
"It's not a proper function of government, to be running and owning and profiting from gambling operations. That's not really part of our Constitution, or the vision that our founding fathers had for our state." Governor Tim Pawlenty on MPR just a few months after taking office.
I guess that "vision" thing gets a little fuzzy when you need money and don't want to tax your rich supporters, but are happy to have the poorest Minnesotans pay nearly twice an effective tax rate as the richest Minnesotans. If our Governor is concerned about "conflict of interest" perhaps he should examine his own conflict between his political pledge and the Constitution (see his above quote) he has sworn to uphold.
I think this issue was squarely addressed by the Supreme Court in WEST VIRGINIA STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION et al. v. BARNETTE et al. (1943). In that case, the court noted that compulsory flag saluting was unconstitutional.
It noted:
"As governmental pressure toward unity becomes greater, so strife becomes more bitter as to whose unity it shall be. Probably no deeper division of our people could proceed from any provocation than from finding it necessary to choose what doctrine and whose program public educational officials shall compel youth to unite in embracing. Ultimate futility of such attempts to compel coherence is the lesson of every such effort from the Roman drive to stamp out Christianity as a disturber of its pagan unity, the Inquisition, as a means to religious and dynastic unity, the Siberian exiles as a means to Russian unity, down to the fast failing efforts of our present totalitarian enemies. Those who begin coercive elimination of dissent soon find themselves exterminating dissenters. Compulsory unification of opinion achieves only the unanimity of the graveyard. It seems trite but necessary to say that the First Amendment to our Constitution was designed to avoid these ends by avoiding these beginnings."
In otherwords, compelled "patriotism" is an evil which the first amendment seeks to prevent for good reason- it can lead to totalitarianism.
Interestingly enough, the people bringing the lawsuit against the school board made a similiar complaint as Steve Kelley:
"Objections to the salute as 'being too much like Hitler's' were raised by the Parent and Teachers Association, the Boy and Girl Scouts, the Red Cross, and the Federation of Women's Clubs."
If Steve Kelley is horrible for making the comparison, are the Boy Scouts also horrible? The Parent Teachers Association, the Girl Scouts? The Red Cross? What about the Supreme Court itself?
You apparently know nothing about the issue. I suggest you research issues before you blog.
I understand that you are SHOCKED!!! God forbid anyone break Godwin's law. But in the regular world of reality, that is all this is. The point is overstated.
It is obvious to any thinking person that Senator Kelley does not equate saying the Pledge of Allegiance with the Nazi's. To think otherwise makes you an idiot.
It is also obvious that saying the Pledge of Allegiance too often takes all meaning from it and actually does the exact opposite of its intent. It becomes a meaningless, mindless ritual that impedes true patriotic feeling.
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