Student sits during pledge of allegiance; gets chair kicked out from beneath him

[Fireball]

I think it is disrespectful if you are not protesting for a particular cause. Not standing up for no other reason than just because you "can't be bothered" is disrespectful. So many people have died for this country and risked their lives for it. Meanwhile someone else can't even be bothered to stand up for 2 minutes? I see that as disrespectdul to those people and especially to those people's families who have to deal with the fear for, and absense/loss of, their loved ones.

As long as there are two particular words in the pledge (which were added in the McCarthy era), I'll never, and I've told my kids not to if that's their choice, stand for a pledge that requires me to acknowledge any gawd. Separation of church and state means exactly that.

Besides, the pledge was intended to be voluntary.

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It's really just the can't be bothered attitude. If it's a form of protest/disagreement or even a religious thing, I wouldn't take issue with it.

I can't imagine someone being too lazy to stand for the pledge but then wanting to join the military, but if someone did I'd find it disrespectful just the same. Even if they had their veteran family's support or w/e. Which would also be strange bc I can't imagine anyone supporting their kid being lazy about something.

(emphasis is mine))

I knew guys in the Army who would run (yes, run) to get inside before reveille or retreat so they wouldn't have to stand and salute. In all cases I knew of, it was pure "can't be bothered" that drove them.

Yup. On my first ship, when I was in the Navy, I had just come off the mess decks and was headed back to the stern on the port weather deck when reveille sounded. I stopped and saluted, right next to a door. As I stood there, a guy who was just inside the door was standing there, laughing at me for getting "caught" outside. I didn't care about getting "caught" outside". He was a fucking dolt, anyway.

FWIW, I fully support an individual's right to not stand for the pledge, or take a knee for good reason. I'll even accept that certain religion's members don't stand, even if I think their religion is utter bunkum. To be honest, I'd like for them to visit other countries in the world, to get an eye-opener on what it's really like (without being an ugly American while they are at it).