whoa! (aka dissent and HP)

[Haggridd]

--- In HPFGU-OTChatter at yahoogroups.com, "Amy Z" <lupinesque at y...> 
wrote:
> > - Nobody's Rib (who prefers that all moral-regulatory laws are 
kept 
> > off her.  but she does obey speed limits.)
> 
> That's good.  <g>  Speed limits fit the principle, "Your right to 
> swing your fist ends where my nose begins."  You can drive as fast 
as 
> you damn please--as long as other people, animals, etc. aren't 
> possibly endangered.  Not the same as banning books at all.
> 
> CivilLibertarian!Amy

Speaking as a civil libertarian who is joyously willing to say the 
Pledge of Allegiance (If you don't understand why that is, there 
isn't enough space here to address that), let me say that the 
enforced orthodoxy of making school kids say this mantra bothers me.
It should be entirely voluntary, a joyous proclamation of liberty, 
rather than its opposite.  Having said that, I don't feel that the 
Pledge should be altered because of a student's or parent's 
disagreement with the words.  They are (or should be) entirely free 
not to participate in the recitation.  The student's relations with 
other students who may feel differently is entirely among them.


And, of course, book burning is for Nazis, not Americans.
Haggridd