GayPatriot

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Charlotte School Chief Mandates Pledge Be Said In English

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Peter Gorman, the still-new-to-the-job Charlotte-Mecklenberg (CMS) School Superintendent, has been impressive in his openness and willingness to make a tough decision and move on.  He has done it again.

As you may recall, I reported last week that controversy erupted in Charlotte after a student recited the Pledge of Allegiance in Spanish at an official CMS school function.

On Friday, we learned that it wasn’t the student’s idea…. he says his school officials suggested it!

Velasquez said the Pledge of Allegiance in English at CMS’s first midyear graduation Monday. Then, at the organizers’ request, he repeated it in Spanish.

Velasquez, a soft-spoken 19-year-old who hopes to become a police officer, says he did not intend to defy or divide. In fact, he says, he’d have preferred saying the pledge only in the second language he now speaks comfortably.

“This is America,” Velasquez said Wednesday. “I respect that.”

Now, CMS Chief Peter Gorman has had the last word on the Pledge.  It will be said in English from now on. (subscription required for full story)

After days of public debate over the appropriateness of a Charlotte-Mecklenburg student saying the Pledge of Allegiance in Spanish, Superintendent Peter Gorman has decided it will be recited only in English at graduations and other districtwide events.

“Upon further reflection, we believe that as a symbol of American democracy and as a pledge of loyalty to our nation, the pledge should be recited in English only from here on out,” Gorman said in a statement.

It is about time one of our accountable public officials takes a stand on unifying, not dividing our community.  English is one of the last unifying elements of this increasingly multi-podcast nation.  Bravo, Mr. Gorman!

-Bruce (GayPatriot)

Comments

  1. On a related note: VDH Revisits Mexifornia.

    Poorer Americans of all ethnic backgrounds take for granted that poverty provides no exemption from mastering English, so they wonder why the same is not true for incoming Mexican nationals.

    [SNIP]

    Our now-spurned laws were originally intended to ensure an (admittedly thin) veneer of civilization over innate chaos—roads full of drivers who have passed a minimum test to ensure that they are not a threat to others; single-family residence zoning to ensure that there are adequate sewer, garbage, and water services for all; … and a consensus on school taxes to ensure that there are enough teachers and classrooms for such sudden spikes in student populations.

    All these now-neglected or forgotten rules proved costly to the taxpayer. In my own experience, the slow progress made in rural California since the 1950s of my youth … has been abandoned in just a few years of laissez-faire policy toward illegal aliens. My own neighborhood is reverting to conditions common about 1950, but with the insult of far higher tax rates added to the injury of nonexistent enforcement of once-comprehensive statutes. [Sounds like Mexico – VtK] The government’s attitude at all levels is to punish the dutiful citizen’s misdemeanors while ignoring the alien’s felony, on the logic that the former will at least comply while the latter either cannot or will not.

    Read every frakking word of it.

  2. Excellent followup! The young man even supports being an American and speaking English. Naturally, it was “educators” who created the problem once again. Fascism, Communism,and now Progessivism have always been doomed to die a humilating death at the hand of American patriotism. It will be even slower than the Iraq victory but both will come.

  5. If the sentiment’s the same, does it matter what language it was expressed in?

    I really can’t see that the language essentially makes a difference. English does not equal American. Or are we to ban saying the Pledge unless it’s also only done with an American accent? What a conundrum for British immigrants.