Air Force veteran opposes Pledge in child’s classroom
Fox News reports that 26-year-old female Air Force veteran Haley Sides has declared war on her child’s school because the principal of the public school has asked student’s to recite the Pledge of Allegiance at the beginning of each day. Side’s explanation for her opposition to this new policy is somewhat convoluted, so if you can figure it out, please explain it to me;
“It pains me to think that at a school that emphasizes thinking globally we would institute something that makes our children think that this country alone is where their allegiance lies,” said Sides. “This has no educational value for young children. Absolutely none.”
Sides started crying as she described why she is so opposed to the pledge being recited in her daughter’s school. The explanation goes back to her partner, a Jamaican-born Navy serviceman who died just seven months after obtaining U.S. citizenship — and when his daughter was 18 months old.
According to the paper, the pledge will be read over the PA system every Monday and recited in individual classrooms the other days of the week. Students who don’t want to participate will be allowed to sit or stand respectfully.
It’s a public school, so it’s funded by American taxpayers…Side’s child’s education is coming out of our pockets, don’t you think she owes us a bit of allegiance? i certainly sympathize with her that she lost her ‘partner” and the child lost her father, but that’s certainly no reason to start acting like a jackass and waving her DD214 around as if it gives her some measure of moral authority to shit all over everyone else’s patriotism. She can always shop around for a private school that doesn’t require the Pledge of Allegiance every morning.
Since the school isn’t forcing anyone to recite the Pledge, I’m assuming that Side is opposed to her child even hearing the pledge recited. She can always carry her ass to Jamaica and pledge allegiance to the Rastafarians since that’s where her allegiances seem to lie.
Category: General Whackos
I could make a ton of comments and rambles about this individual, but it sickens me to high end that a member of the Armed Services, same service as myself, thinks this way. I guess she had a problem saluting and standing at attention during the National Anthem as well.
My assessment: BATSHIT FUCKING CRAZY.
Can someone please explain to me how her partner dying has shitall anything to do with reciting the pledge?
First of all, there’s that “partner” business. Since he’s dead, it’s her ex partner or former partner. I guess that’s better than “baby’s daddy” but it amounts to the same thing–the child is illegitimate. Sound harsh? Well, that’s the way I like it because the loss of stugma attached to unwed mammahood certainly helped expand it. Then there’s the Air Force claim. The story reports she’s a vet but that means nothing to me anymore. Then there’s the 4 years business. The math gets a little funny here. She’s said to be 26. Said to have served 6 years in the AF. Said to have lost her partner 18 months ago. And the child is how old? I smell fish.
Okay, I screwed that up but the math is still funny. She claims to have served 4 years in the AF, not 6. And as for my saying that the vet claim means nothing to me, that’s because the reporters rarely confirm any claimed military service but report it as fact.
Where to start?
A bunch of us served so that ordinary folks could act stupid in public. But will those of you who do please refrain from claiming military service?
Take your meds, sit down and stfu, Ms. Sides.
You know 2-17 that’s how I think. The more shit that becomes accepted as the norm, the less the mores(mor-ays) in society matter…single parenthood is one, divorcing 3 times before you’re forty…shacking up another…we could go on and on.
As for the kid and the POA…doesn’t matter what kind of school the kid goes to. As long as it located in the US of A, she should be saying it. And if Mama don’t like it, she can take the kid out of the US of A and not let the door hit her…or just tell the kid to stand nicely in silence. People have been ticking me off today…
Yeah, I looked this one up… she works for IVAW, so that will explain a lot….
http://depts.washington.edu/jsishelp/ellison/2011/winter/first_year_student_bios
https://www.facebook.com/#!/haleyweston
Since yesterday she has gone into FB and hid that particular info…. wish I had taken a screenshot
For those interested in knowing more about her, she is a graduate student at the Jackson School of International Studies:
http://jsis.washington.edu/ellison/students/grad_bios.shtml
Call me confused but she said her partner died after he became a citizen. Wouldnt she at least want to honor his memory in his quest to become a US citizen?
As long as the school isn’t forcing students to recite the pledge, I don’t really think she has much to complain about. I think rote forms of patriotic display are not as important as teaching what American ideals are supposed to be, but sadly, we don’t seem to get that much in public schools either.
The one thing I like about the military is to a certain degree we have been insulated from this cultural nonsense… Apparently not anymore…. Where are they getting these people, and are they the future of our military? I don’t think I will encourage my son to sign up… College indoctrination is looking better and better.
They are getting the indoctrination brainwashing now in high school. I’m still trying to figure out if that was her daughter’s father why did they not get married five years ago?
Oh, I see her problem now…she drank the kool-aid at Evergreen State College, the place where other IVAW members and Chavez supporters were weand.
There is nothing special about America. We are just one nation among many. The major difference between the US and most other nations is that we perpetrated more evil than most other nations. It all started with our slave-owning founders, all of whom were wealthy landowners and land speculators. They and their progeny ravaged the natives, stole their land, destroyed the natives’ way of life, and ultimately set about on a worldwide conquest for resources that continues to this day. What we need to do is turn away from our militaristic and capitalistic past, apologize to the world, begin to make amends by opening our borders, and recognize that we are no better than, say, Bolivia or Liberia. And this effort has begun in earnest. Our president bows to foreign heads of state, apologizes for America, and decries the wealth-producing capitalists as evil incarnate. We have at least one Supreme Court justice (and likely two) who believes that we should look at foreign law to interpret the US Constitution. And, of course, we have many members of Congress who are either proclaimed socialists or, if not, espouse the socialist, internationalist model of governance, and likewise believe we should be borderless. These things our children are taught in grade school. It’s called Global 21 and it well explains why a woman in America cries when told that her daughter’s teacher will have the daughter’s class recite the Pledge of Allegiance. Welcome to the USA, 2011.
Folks should well know by now that a DD214 is no indicator of maturity, rationality, common sense, decency, or honor.
IVAW–why am I not surprised? And no, wait–lemme guess–never went to the sandbox.
saw this and caused some serious dandruff scratching my head. Defiantly a kool-aid drinker, but WHY serve in the AF if she hated America so much?
Now see what happens when you try to get the principle to SAY the pledge, in say Mass. or LA.
The Liberal media gets a hard on when they can say “A Veteran” Pisses me off bad because I feel they are trying to add me to their shit. I cant figure where this bitch is coming from– I am a Nam Vet and I feel proud when we stand and recite the pledge of allegiance. I feel very proud to stand with the young Vets I ride with in Combat veterans Motorcycle Assn. To see the comrodery as us old guys stand with the great young Warriors!
Doc Bailey,
With all the attractive incentives in place, why NOT serve? Think about it, a young anti-Americanism/pro-internationalism kid is looking for a way to make some money and eventually attend college. She chooses the Air Force–traditionally known as the least military-like branch of service (no offense meant to USAF vets, of coure)–as a gateway into college and beyond. Now flash forward a few years…her veteran status gives her a perceived edge in getting her views broadcast to the nation, her G.I. Bill has paid for a undergraduate degree and perhaps even still paying for her graduate studies (CCAF and tuition assistance may have gotten her close to her Bachelors while she was in), and above all else she has a strong foot to stand on her soap box as a “successful” baby’s mama with military service who is in a graduate program.
I’ve rarely met a fellow Soldier who didn’t lean right, but do recall talking to an America-basher or two who served. We don’t see these types in the Infantry for obvious reasons, but I am sure that Sides is not the first non-combatant to shelve her personal views in order to take advantage of the military.
I scrolled pat all comments to make my own. This wonderous dirt bag may kiss my ass. Whambulance is on its way…stQQpid tool.
pat=past….I have no use for this person. She may eternally kiss my ass.
Just another snake, useless oxygen thief.
Way to go IVAW, I see no difference in any of them, They are all Idiotic Vermin And Wankers.
Jamaicans are not required to recite the US Pledge of Allegiance, so she should be very comfortable in that Caribbean paradise.
@ #23 – HEH! Xxxxxactly!
“It pains me to think that at a school that emphasizes thinking globally we would institute something that makes our children think that this country alone is where their allegiance lies,” said Sides, her voice oscillating between disappointment and anger.
Guess someone doesn’t remember their oath of enlistment either, the dumb scrunt.
I’m with #10: the girl’s father came HERE and earned his citizenship. He obviously thought the US was better than Jamaica. His stunt pisses on all that, IMO…
In ’04 a guy had a tape of Bill O’Riely debating Michael Moore. I thought it was a joke. Bill clearly made some great points about the war, and what was going on. Michael Moore would only say (over and over again) “would you send your kid to war?
Now the NCO in question came from 30th Med Bde, and they NEVER left post to my knowledge. I had been out and about in a sector the size of West Virginia (with only a 2,500 man Bde to police it) and it was clear to me that O’Riley won hands down. Mostly for his willingness to actually ya know debate. the NCO whose name escapes me though insisted I watch it again to see just how much Moore won.
I commented that he must be smoking something
I did a LOT of push-ups
In that same tour I had a Jamaican E-5 who was getting her citizenship. I respected her for that. Even if she DID pull the race card once or twice. This chick is sad to say repellent.
I know this won’t go over well here, but I don’t like the pledge of allegiance either, and I have served in combat as a Marine.
The reason I don’t like it isn’t because I ‘hate America’. I am simply not religious. The Pledge of Allegiance is not part of our long heritage. It was adopted early in WWII, then modified during the Red Scare to include the words “under God”.
If my kids decide to believe in a God, so be it. But I want it to be a genuine belief, not something they’re conditioned to believe because they’re surrounded by it. Same with nationalism. I want my kids to actually understand from the ground up why the United States is a nation apart, I don’t want them to just believe it dogmatically without understanding, nor do I want them to have ideological blinders on when it comes time for critical thinking.
Things like ‘pledges of allegiance’ for regular, every day civilians strike me as coercive. I would never force my kids to hug me until they become conditioned such behavior, if I HAVE to do that something is very wrong. The same goes for forcing or pressuring people to make ‘pledges’. We all know that this country could just as easily go to shit some day. We’re not here for the flag or the President or the military or the church. We’re here for the ideas, and we need to keep it that way.
Well I believe we as a nation NEED to be under God. All nations must have the idea that they are UNDER something, the people, God, what have you, the second that you have nations beholden to no one, is the second you have lost all freedoms.
from a personal theological standpoint, I would have to say that Western society has a cancer. That is to believe that we were Gods unto this Earth. look at our cities, and all the marvels we accomplish. We bend rivers and mountains to our will. . . any yet we don’t not really. I think faith is a necessity, almost as much as humility. But that’s a long debate, and I’m sure that would only attract trolls.
You can believe we’re under God’s influence, that’s fine. But God isn’t Tinkerbell. If he exists as you say I don’t think he’s so subjective and fragile that he’ll disappear if we’re not constantly marking shit up with his name like the world is in his issue gear pile.
We had already been established for nearly two centuries before we decided to go scribbling “In God We Trust” and “Under God” all over everything to try to scare away the commies, and if you ask me we’ve been going DOWN hill since then if anything.
I just can’t see God being very impressed with something so ridiculous as the notion that if we don’t start putting his name on MONEY, of all things, and forcing children to chant his name with great boredom every morning before class, then he might start to fade away.
As a non-believer I don’t feel compelled to believe in God whenever I look at my money, or rise for the pledge (more out of respect for what it means to others), instead I think “man, people are silly, scared, and superstitious.” And I think “if God exists, and I am in his image, he’s probably laughing his ass off at this stuff too, and hoping it doesn’t get out of hand like last time. Or the time before that. Or that other time. No not that one, the other one.”
My take on this-Chicks in the military… just sayin. What nation in their right mind sends women into harms way when there are able bodied men available? The military’s job is to kill people. Women are not “programmed” in this arena. So you have a chick that volunteers for the military (for a job/ free downloading of kids)… so what kind of mentality of a “fighter” do you expect? This kind of crap! I’m ready for the heat rounds on this, but I stand my ground. PS there are NO atheists in foxholes… especially in REAL combat!
@31- “PS there are NO atheists in foxholes… especially in REAL combat!”
Sure there are. BTW…what’s REAL combat? The opposite of FAKE combat?
If the sum total of one’s belief in God were captured by what’s written inscribed on our currency, contained in a phrase within the Pledge of Allegiance, or referenced in US historical documents (such as the Declaration of Independence), I would wholeheartedly agree with you .03. But the truth is that since pre-history, mankind has intuitively recognized that the wonder that is our world and the individual marvels that are its smallest and largest creatures are not attributable to happenstance but to a divinity, a creator. Faith is a gift that some of us nurture, others neglect, and still others reject altogether. Ascribing fear or stupidity to believers overlooks the many brilliant and brave people who lived their lives and took to their deaths with a deep and abiding faith in God.
POthree…
I don’t have a problem with your stand on the Pledge. But if you want a kid to make up it’s own mind, IMO, you’ve got to let them experience these things on their own…IF a kid has a parent who doesn’t believe, they probably don’t go to church…How will a kid be able to make that choice if never exposed? I went to church as a teen w/o adult supervision and I bucked some of the Catholic thought processes. Lo and behold, I realized that after all the forcing my mother avoided- when challenged by another’s religion, found that I had great faith and belief in God…it was a great thing. But I don’t believe I would have ever learned it had I not gone to church.
As for God being printed on shit, well…Remember that one of the reasons America was founded was freedom of religion, and I think it’s a bit of homage as well as respect for the way we were founded. Not so much trying to get people to believe by looking at money. It is symbolic and if you do believe, well, that’s a bit of a bonus…and I do thank you for rising out of respect to others. It is the right thing to do!! Now if only those other non-believers would leave my kids school “Christmas Party” alone with the same kind of respect! 🙂
Another aspect of this story is that what the school is doing is (for first time) complying with existing state law and school district policy. Seems to me, if these people are “outraged” by all classes now reciting the pledge (with easy opt-out by students), they need to direct their energies to changing the law and policy.
What kind of lesson do kids learn when their parents and teachers argue that they should get to pick and choose which laws should be enforced?
@34 – I agree completely with your statement about exposure, and experience may be different than others, but living in an area of devout Catholicism, I don’t think that exposure always works both ways.
Well, Alice, when we have a president who openly states that he will not enforce certain laws with which he disagrees, I guess that sets the stage for states and localities to feel justified in playing picky-choosey too.
>I know this won’t go over well here, but I don’t like the pledge of allegiance either, and I have served in combat as a Marine
I am perfectly fine with your belief. Have your child opt out. Just don’t sue so that ALL children have to.
The Westboro Baptist Church is influenced by the Bible! Osama Bin Laden was influenced by the Koran! David Chapman was influenced by Jody Foster! Let’s just ban any piece of literature or culture that might influence a pack of lunatics. Really?
@38: Yeah, that “liberty and justice for all” line is the one that puts me over the edge; makes me want to start goose-stepping around the classroom.
Sounds like a typical female in the military. Gotta bitch and use the vet card.
YGBFSM! This sorry excuse of an American, should pack her bags and move to Jamacia. It disgusts me that she was in MY Air Force. Our children should pledge allegiance to our flag and our country. Anyone not willing to do so cannot be trusted. She probably only joined to get the GI Bill education benefits.
“If we ever forget that we are One Nation Under God, then we will be a Nation gone under.”–Ronald Reagan
@31, LOL. Oh.. boy. You believe that quaint little fib all you would like.
@34, non-believers just don’t want you to use the government to spread awareness of your religion. We don’t so much care about all of the other ways in which you might choose to spread awareness.
@38, I don’t have as much of a problem with the rest of the pledge, but I do encourage people to think critically about its components, about what we say vs. what we do. For instance…
@40, that sort of assumes that there is “liberty and justice for all”, dunnit? I think we’re far ahead of the rest of the world with regard to getting there, but look back over our national history. We just came out of what will be known as the ‘civil rights era’. Jim Crow, etc. We were literally lynching black people while etching what a Godly nation we are on our money.
Before that we were shuffling Native Americans all around the face of the nation treating them with less dignity than some of our prisoners. Before that we had slaves. SLAVES! And we justified their positions as such using of all things religion.
So that line in particular is, to me, perverse. We aren’t the ‘City on the Hill’ yet, we’re still trudging in that direction. Lines like that in the pledge to me smack of spiking the football on the 10 yard line.
“Before that we were shuffling Native Americans all around the face of the nation treating them with less dignity than some of our prisoners. Before that we had slaves. SLAVES! And we justified their positions as such using of all things religion.” The toilet just overflowed! Nailed.
We have a bright little star in .03. I was duped at first but, as they say, patience is a virtue and if one is virtuous, the truth is revealed. Crudnik.
Explain 2-17AirCav
“So that line in particular is, to me, perverse. We aren’t the ‘City on the Hill’ yet, we’re still trudging in that direction”
Then why have people tried so hard to get here for so long? Yeah, I get it, we ain’t perfect, but we are a damn sight better than most. I don’t understand why people have such a problem with the pledge. Do the same people have a problem with the flag? How about the Constitution? The country in general? Because that’s what the pledge is all about. It’s about our principles and how we, as a nation, recognize that even though we have faults, we continue to see what we want to become. Liberty and justice for all wasn’t achieved overnight, and won’t be, but do we just throw our hands up and say “this is the best we can do”, or do we make that pledge on a daily basis? Recounting what was wrong in the past (Jim Crow being the favorite harbinger of those that want to continue on the negative) without recognizing what has been done right and what has been corrected is intellectual laziness.
Yeah, I don’t mind having the pledge recited and in fact, it should continue to be recited early and often to remind us of what we are striving for. Those that want to set the bar to an unreasonable level will never be satisfied with the progress this country makes, no matter what.
No.
On what the pledge means, I suppose it just means different things to us. To you it means what you’ve said. To me it symbolizes what I’ve said. And from that view I just don’t think it should be the default mode that kids are taught to say it before they’re old enough to even know what it means.
It’s very difficult, once you’ve been led to believe something that isn’t true, to come to grips with the fact that it isn’t true. In accordance with that, I won’t teach my kids the dolled up version of history I was taught where the extent of the Native American experience was helping Pilgrims plant crops and eat Thanksgiving dinner, or that Abe Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation and black people lived happily ever after.
It’s true, the United States is the greatest nation on earth. But it took me twenty years to unlearn all of the non-sense we were taught in the Tennessee public school system, and learn the dirty, awful truth about all of the skeletons in our closet. I don’t want my own kids to have to waste so much precious time unlearning before they actually learn.
I was at a hockey game a few years ago and the team has a program called “tickets for troops.” They call your name, you stand up while the camera is on you so you can be on the big screen. they call this one chick, Air Force, list her “deployments” as Japan and Germany. I almost threw up in my mouth, and any FAC or PJ there would have done the same.