It seems there is no end to the stories highlighting what appears to be an all-out attack on Americanism.

A school district in Sioux Falls, S.D., has decided the Pledge of Allegiance is more of a bother than it’s worth. The school board voted 5-0 to stop the pledge from being recited in high school because they can’t find the 15 seconds to do it. One of the board members told a news source that in high school, there is little time in the mornings or afternoon to pull it off. Can you say “liar”?

These people need to be recalled. Let’s say, for argument’s sake, it takes two minutes from start to finish – from the kids getting on their feet, to saying it, and then sitting back down. Two minutes. Do two minutes less of morning news. Cut the lunch period by two minutes. Cut sex education by two minutes. How about we just shut down the school all together? Then we have all day to do it.

Do these administrators and educators understand that what the pledge stands for and what the flag stands for is what gives them the right to be idiots? The freedoms these things represent include people dying for them in other countries.

Then these yahoos say the pledge will have more meaning if we only do it once in a while. Really? How does that work? You mean I’ll understand something and learn it better if I’m not as exposed to it and don’t do it as often?

Don’t educators believe in learning through repetition? Repetition works. It helps imprint it in your memory. How about you use it as a teaching moment to explain how and why the pledge came about, instead of some other “elective?”

Even when a group of vets approached the board and pleaded with them not to nix the pledge, they were turned down, quickly and coldly. These people gave up years of their lives, families who gave up loved ones, and some of these men and women who gave up limbs (and still carry other injuries) just so that a cold-hearted, short-sighted school board could have the freedom to discard the Pledge of Allegiance as insignificant and not worthy of the 15 seconds (or two minutes) it takes to recite it.

In exercising their freedom to omit the pledge, this board is not only disrespecting this great country and those who secured our freedoms; they are also teaching the next generation to do the same.

This board needs to be fired, recalled and dropped into some Communist, third-world nation for “immersion study abroad.” Let’s see how long they last.

Sadly, they haven’t cornered the market on “stupid” by any stretch…

A school district in North Carolina has decided not to allow an American Legion post to put up banners with our national motto on them. Our national motto. When did that become illegal, immoral or just plain wrong?

Our national motto, approved by our Congress, upheld by the Supreme Court, is “In God we Trust.” Yes, believe it or not, it has been approved by the highest court in the land.

Apparently, the board members in the North Carolina school district didn’t take that class. They had the men from the American Legion remove them because … wait for it … It’s a violation of “separation of church and state” (that non-existent Constitutional clause).

The American Legion produced 16×20-inch framed posters for classrooms with the words “In God We Trust,” with an American flag in the background. At the bottom it reads: “The national motto of the United States, adopted by Congress, July 30, 1956.”

A spokesman for the school district told the local Watauga Democrat newspaper that “In God We Trust” was banned on the advice of their legal counsel on grounds that it might be “unconstitutional.” Their fear was that someone would misconstrue it as promoting a religion.

Seriously? First, fire the attorneys; they obviously have no clue about this. Any attorney worth his salt would have known within minutes of researching this issue that’s it’s already been tried and decided.

Second, please tell me what religion has “In God we trust” as part of its scriptures or writings? None.

The majority of our founding fathers were Christian, period. Deal with it. They wanted people to be able to worship as they pleased (or not pleased). “Freedom OF religion” and “freedom FROM religion” are two completely different things.

Teaching our nation’s history, national motto, Pledge of Allegiance and patriotism in general is not endorsing or promoting any religion.
As I keep saying: Americans wake up, rise up, and do the right thing or you will lose the country you love.

Joe Messina is host of The Real Side (TheRealSide.com), a nationally syndicated talk show that runs on AM-1220 KHTS radio and SCVTV [here]. He is also the current president of the Hart School Board. His commentary publishes Mondays.