a great essay by a 12-year-old
Maybe some of you have seen this, it is almost a year old. Anyhow, this was the essay that won a contest somewhere
actually, maybe she didn't win, i'm not sure. i'm a posting machine today.
Quote:
Published on Wednesday, April 3, 2002 by Common Dreams
What the American Flag Stands For
by Charlotte Aldebron
_
The American flag stands for the fact that cloth can be very important. It is against the law to let the flag touch the ground or to leave the flag flying when the weather is bad. The flag has to be treated with respect. You can tell just how important this cloth is because when you compare it to people, it gets much better treatment. Nobody cares if a homeless person touches the ground. A homeless person can lie all over the ground all night long without anyone picking him up, folding him neatly and sheltering him from the rain.
School children have to pledge loyalty to this piece of cloth every morning. No one has to pledge loyalty to justice and equality and human decency. No one has to promise that people will get a fair wage, or enough food to eat, or affordable medicine, or clean water, or air free of harmful chemicals. But we all have to promise to love a rectangle of red, white, and blue cloth.
Betsy Ross would be quite surprised to see how successful her creation has become. But Thomas Jefferson would be disappointed to see how little of the flag's real meaning remains.
Charlotte Aldebron, 12, wrote this essay for a competition in her 6th grade English class. She attends Cunningham Middle School in Presque Isle, Maine. Comments may be sent to her mom, Jillian Aldebron: aldebron@ainop.com
Published on Wednesday, April 3, 2002 by Common Dreams
What the American Flag Stands For
by Charlotte Aldebron
_
The American flag stands for the fact that cloth can be very important. It is against the law to let the flag touch the ground or to leave the flag flying when the weather is bad. The flag has to be treated with respect. You can tell just how important this cloth is because when you compare it to people, it gets much better treatment. Nobody cares if a homeless person touches the ground. A homeless person can lie all over the ground all night long without anyone picking him up, folding him neatly and sheltering him from the rain.
School children have to pledge loyalty to this piece of cloth every morning. No one has to pledge loyalty to justice and equality and human decency. No one has to promise that people will get a fair wage, or enough food to eat, or affordable medicine, or clean water, or air free of harmful chemicals. But we all have to promise to love a rectangle of red, white, and blue cloth.
Betsy Ross would be quite surprised to see how successful her creation has become. But Thomas Jefferson would be disappointed to see how little of the flag's real meaning remains.
Charlotte Aldebron, 12, wrote this essay for a competition in her 6th grade English class. She attends Cunningham Middle School in Presque Isle, Maine. Comments may be sent to her mom, Jillian Aldebron: aldebron@ainop.com
actually, maybe she didn't win, i'm not sure. i'm a posting machine today.
Comments
"But we all have to promise to love a rectangle of red, white, and blue cloth."
That is not what we do in the Pledge. We pledge allegiance to the flag because of the next line, which is the republic for which it stands. No one also says you have to love the flag/country--simply that you have allegiance with it. Important distinctions.
Originally posted by groverat
What a load of crap.
leave it up to Groverat to derail a perfectly good thread.
Hell, you're not Moderator of Appleoutsider, you're Chief-Editor.
Originally posted by groverat
What a load of crap.
That does sound like an opinion, albeit a gratuitous one. Would you mind saying exactly how this is crap?
It's crap, it's garbage, it's useless. I remember the same crap in East Texas with little kids talking about how they liked prayer in school.
Give me a break. Cheap propaganda.
About as genuine as a $50 Rolex.
Originally posted by groverat
I like it when parents tell their kids what to stay, stick them on a platform to spout the parents beliefs and then use their kids to say crap like "See, even a kid recognizes this!"
It's crap, it's garbage, it's useless. I remember the same crap in East Texas with little kids talking about how they liked prayer in school.
Give me a break. Cheap propaganda.
About as genuine as a $50 Rolex.
I would be proud if my daughter grew up to write something like that in the 6th grade.
Originally posted by groverat
I like it when parents tell their kids what to stay, stick them on a platform to spout the parents beliefs and then use their kids to say crap like "See, even a kid recognizes this!"
It's crap, it's garbage, it's useless. I remember the same crap in East Texas with little kids talking about how they liked prayer in school.
Give me a break. Cheap propaganda.
About as genuine as a $50 Rolex.
dude, chill. no claims were made as to the validity and greatness of the statement, it's just a kid's essay, and a very good essay. parents installing some beliefs in a child does not make the child as effective as a communicator as the child who wrote this essay is.
Originally posted by groverat
What a load of crap.
G'WAAN GROVERAT!
You're so much more fun when you trust your instincts.
Originally posted by progmac
dude, chill. no claims were made as to the validity and greatness of the statement, it's just a kid's essay, and a very good essay. parents installing some beliefs in a child does not make the child as effective as a communicator as the child who wrote this essay is.
true, and when did not parents influence the belifs of thier children?
What does the pledge of allegiance say again, little girl? "...and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, with liberty and justice for all."
Looks like her and her mother can't read too goodly or goodish.
Maybe she's in the same English class as bunge.
I'm not talking about the sentiment of the "essay", I'm talking about the idiotic parent.
Now, if you want to cut to the meaning of such pomp and ceremony with regard to our flag, it's a symbolic gesture. Perhaps if you want to critique the essay, you could say it takes this sort of thing too literally. I wouldn't go so far as to accuse a 12 year old of trivializing the principles the flag stands for. I think her point was meant to be strictly literal -- the formal rules for properly handling a flag, whereas there are no such "rules" for people. I don't think she was saying that individuals are more important than the principles the flag represents. I don't think she was thinking about it in that respect at all.
And, yes, her parents probably helped a lot. But wouldn't you?
Originally posted by groverat
What a load of crap.
Yup.
I bet she gets to sing "This Land is Your Land" at assemblies. Our children are being brainwashed into good little Commies, one generation at a time. The fact that's is REALLY scary is that folks are passing this around and being complimentary about it.
Originally posted by New
it's amazing to see what you guys read into it...
Yeah, crazy of me to think her parents were responsible for the content but for it being on the internet.
Comments may be sent to her mom, Jillian Aldebron: aldebron@ainop.com
Oh wait, I'm right.
Originally posted by groverat
Yeah, crazy of me to think her parents were responsible for the content but for it being on the internet.
Comments may be sent to her mom, Jillian Aldebron: aldebron@ainop.com
Oh wait, I'm right.
this girl writes a good essay, and you start calling her mother an idiot and ask me to mail her!
What the hell is wrong with you?