No More Pledge of Allegiance at Florida Community College

At Hillsborough Community College in Tampa, Florida, a controversy is brewing over the Pledge of Allegiance. The college’s Institutional Advisory Committee – a council made up of students and faculty – decided in September that they would no longer say the Pledge at the beginning of their meetings. According to officials, the decision was made to save time. According to the official minutes, however, the decision was made for less pragmatic reasons.

“A heated discussion ensued between the IAC about the Pledge of Allegiance and its appropriateness in an institution of higher learning which fosters academic freedom and structured dissent against authority,” said the official report. “Some members expressed views that the Pledge made some people uncomfortable and that it violated their beliefs in academic freedom and the goals of the IAC.”

Hillsborough Community College is not standing by the council’s decision, and there doesn’t appear to be anyone defending this notion that “structured dissent against authority” is an important part of the curriculum. Committee spokespeople are standing behind their decision, however, and insisting that the minutes do not accurately reflect the discussion.

“The most common reason discussed was time efficiency and consistency with other committees,” said HCC math teacher Sunshine Gibbons, who raised the original motion. She did admit, however, that other concerns were addressed. “It was stated that if the group was to be sensitive to the diverse population at the meetings, perhaps it would be better to not put anyone in a position to feel uncomfortable or out of place.”

And there you have it. The Pledge of Allegiance now makes people uncomfortable. All these quacks talking about how great diversity is for this country, and yet this is what we get. A population so diverse that our treasured, patriotic institutions must now be thrown out. When your country is so diverse that your flag has become offensive, something is terribly wrong.

“I’m concerned that we’ve trivialized the Pledge of Allegiance,” student and Navy veteran Brad Richlin told WFLA in Tampa. Referring to the council’s idea that the pledge somehow violated their academic freedom, Richlin said, “Well, I’d like to know who paid the price for that academic freedom and what was that price? To me as a veteran that price was blood.”

Academic freedom is the last thing these imbeciles want, anyway. They only want as much freedom as it will take to push traditional notions of patriotism and conservatism out the door. Once that’s taken care of, they can begin remaking this country in the image of liberalism. The ultimate goal is to limit our freedoms, not celebrate them. As long as they can find someone, somewhere who is offended by something, they can write it off as “hate speech” and still feel as though they are in line with the First Amendment.

Of course, once you’ve defined the Pledge of Allegiance as something evil, the Constitution itself probably isn’t far behind.