Pledge of Allegiance,
meetings in blizzards
and other editorial rants
I see our House Republicans are busy making themselves busy again. They want to make it a law that all students recite the Pledge of Allegiance in the classroom at least once a week.
Reciting the Pledge in the classroom is a time-honored tradition that teaches students patriotism to their country. I feel it's an important ritual that should be continued for centuries to come.
Children need to understand the importance of honoring the flag and the freedoms it represents - freedom that was fought for by men and women who paid for it with their lives.
I'm a little irked by the idea of making the Pledge a law.
There are countless classroom traditions I feel strongly about, but I wouldn't introduce legislation requiring schools to offer kindergarten naps or milk breaks. There are simply some things we should trust our local school boards and teachers to implement out of common sense.
I realize there are some Minnesota schools (obviously lacking this common sense) that have banned the Pledge of Allegiance due to its reference to God.
But this law wouldnÕt change the rules in these districts anyway.
The proposed legislation permits schools to opt out of the pledge requirement with a simple majority vote of the local school board. It would also allow any student who objects to participating in the Pledge to be excused without penalty.
These are decisions already handled at the local level. Families in districts where the Pledge is banned need only lobby their school board members to get the rule changed. Our representatives in St. Paul don't need to waste their time micromanaging classroom activities.
It's a patriotic gesture, due to the recent tragic events, but I would encourage our legislators to spend their time working on more practical laws, like finding a way to fund all day every day kindergarten.
Speaking of
public process...
As a civic news reporter, I rarely miss a Luverne School Board meeting. In my "watch dog" role for the public, I feel a government body with a multimillion budget warrants regular coverage.
But I didnÕt cover Thursday's Luverne School Board meeting.
A winter storm that day had caused school to be let out early, most community events that evening were cancelled and the National Weather Service had advised no travel in the entire tri-state region.
Conditions weren't deadly, but roads were slippery and visibility was poor. After getting myself and the boys safely home at 5:30, I made the personal decision not to venture out again that night.
At that point, the School Board meeting hadnÕt been cancelled, but I assumed common sense would eventually prevail.
It didn't.
I later learned the meeting took place despite the storm, and I have to say I'm disappointed. As a public body making decisions on behalf of the public with the public's money, they're bound by law to hold open and public meetings.
If the School Board Chairman (Don Bryan, Hardwick) can't make it to the meeting due to the weather, how accessible is that meeting to the public?
Pancake-size snowflakes
On a more pleasant note ... How 'bout those snowflakes Monday night? My mother called at about 8:30 and told me to go the window. I smiled, and told her I was already there.
It was mesmerizing to watch those "pancake-sized flakes," as she called them, float peacefully to the ground. It felt like the inside of a gift-shop snow globe.
Wednesday, incidentally, was the first official day of spring.
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