Mega hypocrite Sean Hannity
[Beneath The Spin]
While this country professes to honor the ideals of freedom, independence, liberty, and justice, that’s just lip service.
We have a long history of stifling each and every one of those ideals, and anyone who doesn’t believe that should simply try suing a major corporation for an injustice, or try embracing the “freedom” to live an unconventional lifestyle. This country frowns upon those things just like any other country. Gays and women are learning that lesson as we speak.
All of the institutions that are supposedly designed to protect our freedom and justice are nothing more than facades that are actually designed to give us the ILLUSION of freedom and justice. While I don’t want to throw a monkey-wrench in anyone’s comfort zone, it’s very important for us to wake up and be realistic about what we DON’T have, in order to work towards actually achieving what I choose to call “The American Wish List.”
According to “TakePart.com, “In 2008, eight states had no laws requiring students recite the Pledge of Allegiance at school. That number has recently dwindled to five, with Nebraska being the latest state to adopt a statewide mandate.”
Many conservatives, enthusiastically advocate that children recite “The Pledge of Allegiance.” Conservative talk show host, Sean Hannity said, “Why wouldn’t anyone want to say the Pledge of Allegiance, unless they detested their own country or were ignorant of its greatness?” Notice that even in Hannity’s statement advocating the recitation of “The Pledge of Allegiance,” which guarantees “Freedom and Justice for all,” you can hear a clear indictment against those who may choose not to recite the pledge.
That’s the kind of gross and narrow-minded hypocrisy that makes people not want to recite it in the first place – “I love the freedom, liberty, and justice in America so passionately that I’m willing to take it from you to get you to love it like I do.” That’s also what makes us look like the Beverly Hillbillies of the “free world” – rich and powerful, but as presumptuous, backward-thinking, and unsophisticated as they come.
The problem with many conservatives like Hannity, Limbaugh, and other’s is they’re so blind that they fail to even see the hypocrisy of their position. Thus, as a middle-class African American male – in fact, as a human being of good conscience – I take great exception with making it mandatory for our children to recite a lie as fact at a time in their lives when their thinking is being molded without their consent, or the consent of their parents. Because the Pledge of Allegiance represents the worst kind of hypocrisy, and it serves no useful purpose other than to brainwash the nation’s children.
One would think that as a conservative Mr. Hannity would recognize that the very essence of freedom is the freedom of parents to raise their children according to the philosophy that they see fit. Therefore, forcing a pledge down the collective throat of America’s children constitutes an unconscionable intrusion by government on a family’s rights. It’s un-American by definition, and it violates the very pledge that our children are being forced to recite.
A mandatory pledge is a blatant act of indoctrination. What other motive can we have for forcing children to recite a pledge that they don’t even understand? When I was a kid coming up during the height of the civil rights struggle, I was forced to pledge my allegiance to a nation that frowned upon everything I represented, and was dead set on thwarting anything that I ever hoped to become.
At the same time, so-called “patriotic Americans” – while enthusiastically insisting that we recite The Pledge – simultaneously lynched African Americans, bombed black children in church, and formed angry mobs to show up and jeer black children attempting nothing more than to go to the school of their choice.
And shortly before that, these same “patriotic Americans” forced Black WWII heroes (the Tuskegee Airmen) returning from Europe to give up their seats to German prisoners of war. Yet, there I was, standing there reciting the Pledge of Allegiance – “and to the republic for which it stands” – every morning. Even as a child, if I had understood the meaning of the words that I would later have to dredge from my brain just to be able to think clearly, I would have refused to recite them – regardless of the consequences.
And beyond the pledge being morally disingenuous and a monument to the worst kind of hypocrisy, the entire text is, literally, a lie: “. . . One nation under God.” In light of what I’ve just described, what is that supposed to mean? “Indivisible.” The Civil War demonstrates that’s a lie. “With liberty and justice for all.” I won’t even waste the ink to address that issue. So again, other than brainwashing, what other motive could we possibly have for requiring our children to start off every morning with a lie of that magnitude?
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