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

[Joods]

Let's face it. It's not disrespectful even if you're not protesting.

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.

The people that actually "died for this country" under the term of "freedom" for this country, did so well over one hundred years ago. People who serve today are not serving to fight for our freedoms. Those freedoms were established long before our great grandparents were even thoughts in their parents eyes. Servicemen and women today, enlist for different reasons so to continue using the excuse that our current (going back 100 years go at least) military forces are still "fighting for our freedom" is bullshit. 

What is disrespectful is to try and use shame and guilt on anyone who doesn't want to stand during the pledge. There are no laws on any books in this land that require or demand that any US citizen stand during the pledge of allegiance. 

Here's an article from the FFRF that proves as much: No. You don't have to stand.

Yes, CL, your husband is in the military. But if you think he's in there to fight for our  freedoms, you are wrong. No one government or group of people pose that much of a threat to the United States or her Constitution, that we have to go to war for that today. And before anyone says otherwise, you're still wrong if you think that going to someone else's country to fight in a war, is fighting for OUR freedoms. If anyone is still insistent on saying different, then they need to read up on the US Constitution and the Declaration of Independence and learn something. 

The people who have a problem with those protesting against the pledge, need to get over themselves and learn that protesters have just as much of a right to sit as those in opposition have, to stand. You want to stand? Great. You do that. But you don't get to trample on someone else's right to sit because you don't like that they're sitting. The Supreme Court has already made that much clear. For those who seem bothered that people are sitting and not actually protesting anything - how about learning this (taken from the linked article in my post): 

After divisive court battles, the U.S. Supreme Court issued an eloquent ruling in 1943, which is the prevailing law today, assuring students they do not have to recite or participate in the Pledge of Allegiance. The pledge under dispute in the case was accompanied by a "stiff-arm" salute. Students who did not salute were found guilty of "insubordination" and could be expelled. The Court ruled such abuses unconstitutional.

"If there is any fixed star in our constitutional constellation, it is that no official, high or petty, can prescribe what shall be orthodox in politics, nationalism, religion, or other matters of opinion or force citizens to confess by word or act their faith therein.

"We think the actions

of the local authorities in compelling the flag salute and pledge transcends constitutional limitations on their power and invades the sphere of intellect and spirit which it is the purpose of the First Amendment to our Constitution to reserve from all official control."

West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette, 319 U.S. 624 (1943)