Regarding my post on Mason Michalec, the young man from Texas being cruelly punished for refusing to recite the Pledge, Gary Barnett writes:

…I am now 62 years old. Even though I was very shy at the time, in the tenth grade of high school in 1968, I stood up before 200 or more students at the every morning student union gathering room and refused to say the horrible “Pledge of Allegiance” that day or ever again. I said also that I would never worship a piece of cloth or the government by any forced allegiance to any flag or country. This caused quite a stir and the faculty did not know how to handle this refusal. It had never happened before. I was sent to the principal’s office and my father was called. Although he was of the Republican persuasion, he told the principal that if my decision was not to say the pledge, then he would stand by me regardless of any thoughts he may have on the matter. After, I was only required to begin my school day before classes at this gathering center, but did not stand or partake in that idiocy the rest of my days in school.

What is most interesting to me in this case you mentioned is the difference in time. Considering all that has happened since the “good old days” of America, I would assume that this young man’s principled stand would be less of an event today than is obvious here. It just goes to show how much more indoctrinated and controlled the system has become, and how the propaganda continues to spread.

I would like to think that, in the age of Ron Paul, this happens more than we hear about. But I’m cynical enough not to get my hopes up too high.