Will Phillips Interviewed on CNN November 16, 2009

Will Phillips Interviewed on CNN

By Guest Contributor
November 16, 2009

Will Phillips — the 10-year-old boy who won’t stand up for the Pledge of Allegiance because there is no “justice for all” for the GLBT community and so many others — was interviewed on CNN today.

What an awesome kid. His parents are just setting the bar high for the rest of us who want children someday.

(Thanks to everyone for the link!)

Previous Post
An Argument in Defense of Quotation Marks
Next Post
Secular Student Alliance Introduction Video
Browse Our Archives
What Are Your Thoughts?leave a comment

  • this kid is 10?! wow! very well spoken for anyone of any age, let alone a 10 year old!

    at the end of the video, the cnn host asks the 10 year old his thoughts on the fact that the democratic process continually results in the public voting against gay rights… whenever i hear this argument it frustrates me! why should the lay public be allowed to VOTE on the sexual, marital and survivorship rights of other adults acting in the privacy of their own homes?!?!

    religion is often used in this way – people believe they can justify their vote (usually on an issue that shouldn’t even be put up to public vote) based on their religious beliefs. i.e. “the old testament says men shouldn’t lay with other men” to which i think “the old testament also sodomizes little girls and sacrifices people to god”.

  • Amazing.

  • AxeGrrl

    Can I adopt him?

    The father’s response/commentary pleasantly surprised me ~ I guess whenever I see a kid on CNN *cough* balloon-boy *cough*, I automatically assume that the parent is going to be a loon 🙂

  • RG

    Awesome T-Shirt

  • Is there a video? Why can’t I see anything? Tried different browsers 🙁

  • TXatheist

    Axegirl, yeah, my first instinct was to just let the kid go on by himself, including if it was my kid. But, I wish the kid would have said something about atheists but that’s trivial in comparison to his effort.

  • TXatheist

    I do have a serious concern. According to one principal I spoke with in Round Rock ISD the kids may be quiet but must stand according to the law…any lawyers out there?

  • anon

    http://www.aclufl.org/pdfs/Legal%20PDfs/Frazier.pdf

    In 2006, in the Florida case Frazier v. Alexandre, No. 05-81142 (S.D. Fla. May 31, 2006) “A federal district court in Florida has ruled that a 1942 state law requiring students to stand and recite the Pledge of Allegiance violates the First and Fourteenth Amendments of the U.S. Constitution.[14]

  • muggle

    That kid knows his own mind! I love it when a kid shows this kind of insight and courage.

    I do wish his dad could have been a bit more supportive instead of acting embarrassed by him. When he finally commented, it was a relief to hear him acknowledged that kids have their own ideas and rights but I was wincing at the hiding his face in his hand and elbowing the kid at the end, trying to make him laugh and be less serious.

    The kid was right to be serious; it was a serious stand he took. And more guts than 20 grownups!

  • Elpuribusunam

    You people are scary. Kid and his parents are narcissists. Threaten a teacher and get away with it. Refuse to stand for Pledge and get applauded by idiots.

    Do you people realize you are agreeing with a 10-year old refusing to (at least) stand for the Pledge. Are you all in favor of encouraging such disrespect? If so, we are doomed.

  • kahfay

    Too often we do things just because we are expected to. What courage it took a 10 year old to say no. I wish I had half as much courage as he has.

  • N Waff

    ================================
    So, does Will Phillips support liberty and justice for those who practice mutual polygamy, incest, pedophilia, bestiality? Don’t tell me Will Phillips is a discriminatory hater.
    ================================
    The kid is well trained.

  • @ Elpuribusunam

    The kid did not get away with threatening his teacher. He didn’t threaten her in the first place, he insulted her (“Go jump off a bridge” is not the same as “I’m going to throw you off a bridge”) and he was properly disciplined for saying that. He should show respect to other people and his principal and parents have taken steps to teach him how to do so, even when he disagrees with what they say.

    As for showing respect for the flag, the flag is a symbol for our nation and its guiding principals. Thus, the proper way to show respect for the flag is to show respect for the nation and its guiding principals. These principals include freedom of speech and freedom of conscience. It is Will’s right under the law not to engage in speech that is contrary to his conscience. Practicing that right, rather than fearfully participating in a rote rituals,is protected by the First Amendment and shows Will’s respect for the nation and its principal of liberty and justice for all. He doesn’t need to recite a pledge made up in the late 1800s by a Baptist preacher and revised in the 1950s in order to prove his loyalty or his respect.

    By the way, it’s “E pluribus unum” – “Out of many, one.” I don’t know what “El puribus unum” means, but “E pluribus unum” represents the idea that Americans have a variety of ideas and backgrounds and that this is a strength of our country. Apparently, you want us to be “Out of one cookie-cutter, many who think the same way.”

  • avila

    “Out of many, one” was intended to proclaim a nation of many diveristies and choices joining together in one nation.

    Will is well spoken and holds to his right to free speech. Good for him. I understand he even apologized for his disrespectful comment to the teacher to whom he was entrusted by his father.

    However, this debate will go on forever, until forever becomes eternity of a different way than in which we know it.

    Respect and rights of individuals goes both ways. What about the rights of individuals who follow the virtuous life that includes chastity and modesty? In today’s world, the privacy of these individuals who have certain rights is continuously violated. It shouldn’t matter if you disagree with these individuals. They still have rights, just like the LGBT community, right? Isn’t this just a difference of perspective? Are they not humans? Should they be forced to accept a concept which would include the public choice of two lesbians making out if this offends them?

    Here is an example: It is a unified belief among all that pedophilia, or sex with a child, is against the law. But there are many many people who engage in this act, or watch it on the internet and in film. It is titillating to them, and if they do not participate in the act, what law does it break to watch it? Yet the country is still unified in the belief that this type of act or watching of it is against the norm of acceptable human behavior. It is against the law. It violates the decency and rights of a child.

    If those people who engage in some way through viewing of or participating in pedophelia believe they have the right to this behind closed doors, then the fight for this right could and will begin. How is this concept different from free sex with an adult of either gender, or an animal for that matter? The free will right to choose and fight for this right will violate the current overall consensus in this country today, and the right to live chastely in this country.

    If the LGBT world was discreet about their lifestyle, this debate would be easier. They have the right to choose to do anything they want. Even to watch child sex. But at this time, that is against the law.

    When will this all end?

    In fact, let’s go even further: when will the rights of killers and the protection of their choice to murder be redefined as acceptable?

    We are trying to redefine morality as it has always stood. Much of the world still believes that the concrete definition of marriage is just what it always has been: between a man and a woman.

    A new word needs to be started, defining the union between two women and two men. Mankind is intelligent enough to handle that. Mankind has the ability to create new words, just as it has the ability to normalize previously unacceptable concepts. And this new word, reflecting the union between gays will be honored with the same rights as the word marriage provides.

    That way the rights of both sides can be honored.

    Seems like the gay community just wants to change a concrete word and its concept.

    A rock will always be a rock and cannot be called water.

    If you as an intelligent human being wish to proclaim free will choice, then justice belongs to all: including to those who remain faithful to the definition of marriage.

  • RetiredFirstSgt

    Will is 100% correct in his assessment of what the pledge means.Rather than blindly spouting a meaningless rote recitation of a over simplified ritualistic pledge to a meaningless daily classroom routine, Will actually thought out what the words mean and stand for. Now if all parents would teach their children what America and the pledge stand for. Then and only then will there be “Liberty and Justice for all.”

  • Shane

    Will is incredible. I made him this image so others can show their support: Will Phillips has a posse.

  • Sarah

    I’m gay but I would fight for the rights of straight people with out thinking about it. If someone told me straight people can’t marry anymore because it’s against there religion then I would fight so hard against that.

    If Christians were told they were not allowed to marry then I would fight for there rights also.

    By the way, to all the people who think being born/created gay falls under the same catergory as a sex offender then I presume you believe straight people are the same as sex offenders as well. Oooo and how about people who were born with ginger hair, are they sex offenders?

    Anyone who does not physically hurt anyone else or help towards violence (watching child porn behind closed doors)should have the same rights as anyone else.

  • SEAN COLLINS

    “Out of the mouths of babes………..”

  • kati

    “So, does Will Phillips support liberty and justice for those who practice mutual polygamy, incest, pedophilia, bestiality? Don’t tell me Will Phillips is a discriminatory hater.”

    I hate when people compare rights for homosexuals to rights for people who are pedophiles. What about the matter of free will? In a homosexual relationship aren’t both parties in favor of the relationship. It is beyond me that someone could stoop as low as to compare the two.

    I think it is amazing that a ten year old boy has the courage to stand up, or not stand up, for what he believes in.

  • kati

    If the word Union takes the religion out of the ceremony, then why havn’t people been doing it already? Will you have to be gay to have a union? Are we going back to seperate but equal?