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Coming Soon! From Common Courage Press Recent Stories June 2, 2003 Arundhati Roy Day of the Jackals Norman Madarasz Behind the Neo-Con Curtain: Plato, Leo Strauss and Allan Bloom Alain Frachon and Daniel Vernet The Strategist and the Philosopher: Strauss and Wohlstetter Anthony Gancarski Anti-Imperialism, Then & Now Standard Schaefer Wasted at the Pentagon Jason Leopold Rocky's Advice to the Dems Guthrie & Albert HUAC 58 Years Letter Steve Perry The Politics of Terror Alerts   May 31, 2003 Alexander Cockburn A Whiner Called Horowitz Gary Leupp The Frauds of War Dave Lindorff Clinton, Bush, Lies and Impeachment Tom Stephens Does It Matter that the Bush Administration Lied? Sasan Fayazmanesh Who Is Next? Joanne Mariner Trivializing Terrorism Wayne Madsen Ayatollah Rumseld's Busy Week Larry Magnuson Is a Television a Radio or a Billboard? Elaine Cassel Wake Up, America! Gila Svirsky Waiting for the Lament to End Susan Davis Kitchen Dreams Chris Clarke Barbra Streisand: Environmental Hypocrite Chris Floyd Bush Locates Source of World Evil: God Adam Engel Gravity's End Zone Poets' Basement Reiss, Guthrie, Orloski, Albert   May 30, 2003 Ben Tripp Crouching Tiger, Hidden Agenda Neve Gordon The Bad Fence Todd Steiner Endangered Ocean Robert Freeman Bush's Tax Cuts: a Form of National Insanity Sean Carter Utah Gets Fired Up for Executions Daniel Bacher How Bush's War Violated International Laws Tariq Ali Re-Colonizing Iraq Steve Perry Bush Wars Web Log   May 29, 2003 CounterPunch Wire WMD: Who Said What When Jason Leopold Despite Thin Intelligence Reports, US Plans Overthrow of Iran Regime Ron Jacobs Popular Uprising, Inc. Michelle Ciaccorra Bush's Nuclear Policy: Do As I Say, Not As I Do Yves Engler The Economics of Health Care in America: Pay More to Die Sooner Kimberly Blaker Vouchers for Jesus Harry Browne Stakeknife: Britain's Army Spy at the Top of the IRA Stew Albert Cops of the World Steve Perry Greens 04: In or Out?   May 28, 2003 David Vest DubyaCo.: It's Not So Funny Any More Dave Lindorff My Grandfather's Medal John Stanton America's Dying: Arts and Philosophy Hold the Key Bernard Weiner A PNAC Primer Robert Jensen Texas Dems Set a Standard for the Rest of the Party Ahmad Faruqui The Oil Business of Regime Change: the CIA and Iran Hammond Guthrie Disarming Conundrums Steve Perry What If There's No Such Thing as Al-Qaeda?   May 27, 2003 Kurt Nimmo Condoleezza Rice: Huckstress for Israeli Myths Anthony Gancarski Hillary: a Dem the NeoCons Could Love? Patrick Cockburn Terror, Bush and Joseph Conrad John Chuckman an Interpretation of Bush's Character Kathleen Christison What Sharon Wants, Sharon Gets Jeffrey Blankfort AIPAC Hijacks the Roadmap Steve Perry Trouble in the Hinterlands   May 26, 2003 Franklin C. Spinney Test Anxiety: Star Wars, Punctuated Epistimology and the Triumph of Medievalism Elaine Cassel Supreme Sacrifice Sam Hamod When Trained Killers Return Home Stew Albert The Final Conflict   May 24 / 25, 2003 Gary Leupp The Philosopher Kings: Leo Strauss and the Neo-Cons Uri Avnery The Hannibal Procedure Diane Christian Who's the Real Enemy? "Just Cause" or "Kill the Bastards" Alexander Cockburn Derrida's Double Life William S. Lind Is Saddam Really Out of the Game? William Cook Road to Nowhere David Krieger Bush's War on the Poor: Economic Justice Ilan Pappe Academic Freedom Under Assault in Israel Wayne Madsen American Idle Noah Leavitt Slowing Sowing Justice in the Killing Fields Walt Brasch Americans are Liars Lenni Brenner John Brown and Dutch Bill Mickey Z. Hope, Crosby & Al Qaeda Michael Ortiz Hill Grievous Harm Here and Abroad Adam Engel Towers of Babel Poets' Basement Albert, Guthrie, Alam, Orloski   May 23, 2003 Standard Schaefer Lifting the Sanctions: Who Benefits? Ron Jacobs Long Live People's Park! Michael Greger, MD Return of Mad Cow: US Beef Supply at Risk Elaine Cassel Tigar to Ashcroft: "Secrecy is the Enemy of Democratic Govt." Sam Hamod The Shi'a of Iraq Christopher Greeder After the Layoffs (poem) Steve Perry Bush's Wars Weblog 5/23         Hot Stories CounterPunch Wire WMD: Who Said What When Cindy Corrie A Mother's Day Talk: the Daughter I Can't Hear From Elaine Cassel Civil Liberties Watch Michel Guerrin Embedded Photographer Says: "I Saw Marines Kill Civilians" Uzma Aslam Khan The Unbearably Grim Aftermath of War: What America Says Does Not Go Paul de Rooij Arrogant Propaganda Gore Vidal The Erosion of the American Dream Francis Boyle Impeach Bush: A Draft Resolution Click Here for More Stories.   Subscribe Online Search CounterPunch

June 5, 2003 The Problem of Patriotism Texas Pledge Law Undermines Democracy By ROBERT JENSEN Among its many dubious achievements this session, the Texas Legislature -- in the name of promoting appreciation for democratic political values in the public schools -- struck a blow against the critical thinking skills crucial for meaningful democracy. The Legislature passed, and Gov. Rick Perry last week signed into law, a bill ordering all school districts to require students to pledge allegiance to the U.S. and Texas flags once during each school day, starting in the fall. The message is pretty simple: To be good citizens-in-training, children must stand up, face a flag, and recite by rote a questionable set of political assertions. That's democracy in action? That's education? No, that's instruction in subordination, the unquestioned acceptance of authority. In his defense of the bill, sponsor Sen. Jeff Wentworth pointed out that the habits we form as children are crucial to moral and political development. "If you want children to know what work is, have them work," the San Antonio Republican said. I couldn't agree more. He continued, "If you want children to love country and state, teach them to honor their flags." That one begs some obvious questions: Why should we want children to love country and state? What do such declarations really mean? If our country or state is engaged in illegal or immoral activities, should we love it? If what we claim to love are not the actions of our government at any given moment -- which can be, and often are, stupid or wrong, or both -- is it really principles about freedom and justice we are claiming to love? If so, why claim those principles for country or state? Aren't those principles universal? And, more importantly, if the lives of all people all over the world are of equal moral value -- as every major religious and philosophical system contends -- shouldn't we be pledging allegiance to our common humanity? Perhaps we should be pledging to work toward a future in which state and national boundaries no longer separate people. Maybe we should be pledging to work toward a set of universal principles that are articulated and defended in a world council made of up of representatives from different watershed regions based on principles of voluntary association. Or maybe not -- which is my point. Different people have different viewpoints on these questions. In a meaningful democracy, the conventional answers to those questions shouldn't be drilled into children through rituals. In an educational system that takes seriously the goal of encouraging critical thinking (see the Texas Education Code, section 28.001), the answers to all those questions should not be dictated but should be the subject of discussion from the earliest possible age. Yes, we want children to form good intellectual and political habits -- one of which is subjecting to rigorous critique the political assertions handed down from above. This is the problem of patriotism. If we want to live in a real democracy, the concept of patriotism itself has to be up for grabs. We must encourage serious debate -- not just about what constitutes patriotic behavior, as the question is usually framed, but about whether patriotism itself is politically and morally desirable. That debate isn't fostered by required recitation of pledges to flags. The new law also mandates a one-minute period each day for students to "reflect, pray, meditate, or engage in any other silent activity." That provision and the "one nation under God" phrase in the national pledge of allegiance raise questions of church/state separation. But my concerns here are about pedagogy, not theology. Because the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 60 years ago that a school could not force a child to recite the pledge, the new Texas law allows schools to excuse a student, at a parent's request, from reciting the pledges. Even with that provision, in some classrooms students who opt out may face ridicule from fellow students, and we should be concerned about them. Much more dangerous, however, is the effect on those students who stand up every day and participate in the pledge drill. Our democracy is in serious trouble if we think we can teach citizenship and critical thinking like the multiplication tables. Robert Jensen is an associate professor of journalism at the University of Texas at Austin, a member of the Nowar Collective, and author of the book Writing Dissent: Taking Radical Ideas from the Margins to the Mainstream and the pamphlet "Citizens of the Empire." He can be reached at rjensen@uts.cc.utexas.edu. Today's Features Arundhati Roy Day of the Jackals Norman Madarasz Behind the Neo-Con Curtain: Plato, Leo Strauss and Allan Bloom Alain Frachon and Daniel Vernet The Strategist and the Philosopher: Strauss and Wohlstetter Anthony Gancarski Anti-Imperialism, Then & Now Standard Schaefer Wasted at the Pentagon Jason Leopold Rocky's Advice to the Dems Guthrie & Albert HUAC 58 Years Letter Steve Perry The Politics of Terror Alerts   Keep CounterPunch Alive: Make a Tax-Deductible Donation Today Online! home / subscribe / about us / books / archives / search / links /