In the New Tea Party Coloring Book, a Page About the Pledge of Allegiance… April 2, 2012

In the New Tea Party Coloring Book, a Page About the Pledge of Allegiance…

By Hemant Mehta
April 2, 2012

An image from Tea Party II: Why America Loves You! The Social-Activist Coloring Book for Kids:

If you’re going to give it to your teacher, I suggest crossing out a couple of words with a black crayon.

(via Christian Nightmares)

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  • Further instructions mention coloring the hair of one of the kids red to show ethnic diversity.

  • “The Tea Party is the classical America and will keep America safe. ” – from the linked site.

    Yeah, I don’t think the Tea Partiers really understand what safe means.

  • Yikers! Right out of The Stepford Kids, or Village of the Damned!

  • Holmej

    whoa, they are just an “-activ” away from pushing socialism!

  • Wow, I’ve never seen a group of kids look so Aryan before color was added!

  • Canthislennon

    Pledge of allegiance; the double dose of flock brainwash.

    Who the hell tells their kids to PLEDGE-AN-ALLEGIANCE to stuff?

    ‘Mindlessly follow this country no matter what it does.’

    It makes me sick.

  • The Captain

    For people who claim they really love “independence” they sure do seem to want everyone to pledge conformity.

  • A question from one of your northern neighbours, because I don’t have a clue: Why does it seem (to me) like the U.S. has a…a… there’s no other way to put it… a flag fetish?

    Maybe it’s just something that occurs in red states? Like I said, I don’t have a clue and I’d love to understand. You guys even have that vaguely pejorative phrase, “wrapping himself in the flag…”

    Thanks in advance for your replies.

  • Anonymous

    You know, when I was a kid every wholesome “good example” illustration I got had at least one token black kid in the group. If the group was a little bigger, an asian girl would show up and sometimes you’d even get a latino.

    I wonder whether they provide crayons with this little flyer, and I further wonder if they even bother including a brown one.

  • Beau

    While it’s more red than blue, I think we’re pretty into symbols.  We’re idealists all around and the flag is one of the national symbols that represent those ideals.  We give the symbol different attributes depending on our politics (ie equality and freedom versus god and war), but either way it’s a representation of our nation, and we’re pretty nationalistic. 

    As a kid I was taught all sorts of flag stuff.  Never let it touch the ground; fold it the right way in that little triangle thing; the only appropriate way to retire a flag is in a flag burning ceremony.  I mean look at the pledge.  We swear allegiance to the symbol and what it represents and not the nation itself.   Even our anthem is about it. 

    We have other symbols of course.  I was almost offended when I heard people kill bald eagles, and as much of a dove as I am there’s something about Marine dress blues.  Symbols represent what the country SHOULD be, and the flag is THE symbol for the nation as opposed to a part of it. 

  • Beau

    I’ve never taken it to be pledging allegiance to the government or the country blindly.  I’ve always thought you pledged to the republic the flag stood for.  You were pledging to uphold the values it represented, not following the government even when it’s wrong. 

  • Anonymous

    Came here to make the Village of the Damned comment.  🙂

  • Iosue

    “Under god” or no “Under god,” the Pledge of Allegiance is a bad idea to begin with.  I think the U.S. may be the only country that even has anything like it.  For a country that prides itself on “independence,” it sure has a long-standing infatuation with conformity.

    I pledge no allegiance to anyone or anything.

  • Andrew T.

    Seeing that this is soaked in tea, I’m surprised they didn’t lie and imply that the goddy pledge was introduced verbatim by the “founding fathers” while they were at it.

    By the way, I slogged through daily Pledge of Allegiance recitals in practically every day of school I experienced from K to 12.  Not standing and saluting was not presented as an option even though a court case from the very state I was in (West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette) made it so.

  • monyNH

     I have been uncomfortable with the Pledge for as long as I can remember. Setting the whole “under God” thing aside, it just doesn’t feel right to stand en masse and pledge devotion, loyalty, and fidelity to a piece of cloth AND the government. It is essentially meaningless, isn’t it? Better to show our allegiance by following our laws, paying our taxes, and doing our civic duty by voting.

    Then I learned that the Pledge was written for children, for a one-time Flag Day event, and I finally said, “F*** it, I’m not doing THIS anymore.”   🙂

  • I hated this kind of crap when the overly earnest Left was doing it in the 70s. At least I have the comfort of knowing that it didn’t work then, either.

    [Old Man Alert] I was eight years old when Nixon went to China. It was the first time that American television reporters were allowed to report from within the PRC, and in addition to the coverage of the summit, there were a lot of exoticised, propagandistic “life in China” human-interest reports on TV. I clearly remember seeing footage of kids my age being required to memorize and recite in unison a passage from the Little Red Book in school, and the news reporter solemnly intoning about childhood indoctrination and brainwashing. The next day in school, we were all asked to rise and say the pledge of allegiance. I stood up, and then I thought about those kids, and nothing came out of my mouth. I’ve never recited the pledge since.

    BTW: Do Jehovah’s Witnesses still get a religious exemption to reciting the pledge? They did when I was young. Something to do with idolatry.

  • MyScienceCanBeatUpYourGod

    Beau has some good points, but I think all that stuff is stronger in Red states. Conservative leadership figured out a while ago that their base will support patently un-patriotic ideas as long as it is packaged in patriotic symbolism and language.

    No matter how wrong you are, you can get support if you APPEAR more patriotic than your opponent or critics. “Godwin’s Law” states that every political argument will eventually lead one side to compare the other side to Hitler and Nazis. (Whichever side resorts to this loses by showing they are out of rational arguments.) Presenting yourself as “more American” than your opponents is a less obvious and less extreme (and therefore more effective) application of the same technique.

    Conservatives began using *lack* of overtly stated (but disingenuous) patriotism as an attack against political opponents, leading to a sort of patriotism arms-race.

  • FSq

    The Tea Party Coloring Book…..also known as The Tea Party’s Most Intelligent and Well Thought Out Tome. This represents the pinnacle of Tea Party thought and erudition.

    Tea Party ….AHHHHHAhahahahahahahahHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHahahahahahahahahAhahahahaha…..

  • Fentwin

    I went to their site from the link,poked around a bit and found this about dinosaurs-:P

    “Using the table of contents, children and adults can learn about the names, including the correct pronunciation, of many dinosaurs of the Jurassic, Triassic, and Crustaceous periods.”(scratches head)

  • Shabob Muhammed Abikd

    The pledge is about supporting your country and republic, not the actual government running the country at the time. Reciting the pledge of allegiance brings us closer to communist China? Or any other dictatorship? That’s a streeeeeeeeetttttchhhhhhhhhhhhh………..

  • DataJack

    Or “America”.

  •  It’s not just you — there’s a fair-sized segment of “Murikans” that are (and I hope this is only figurative) fapping to the flag. It’s quite disturbing.

  • Ggsillars

    Are they unaware that the original author of the Pledge, Francis Bellamy, was a Christian SOCIALIST?

  •  In a word? YES.

    Then again, their freakin’ SAVIOR, JESUS CHRIST, advocated socialism, and they still (claim to) follow him…

  • HA2

     I remember saying the pledge of allegiance in elementary school, before I even knew what all the words in it were, just repeating it phonetically.

    Yeah, that’s pretty much doing it blindly.

  • FSq

    I answer to no one, live for myself and apologize for nothing.

    I will not pledge allegiance to anything, nor blindly follow.

  • Anonymous

    Funny, but I didn’t know that an non-sentient chunk of land that I happen to have been born on could love me. 

  • Coyotenose

     Speaking as a member of the Furry Fandom (which incidentally has a lot of atheists/humanists/freethinkers), with all that implies about the kinks and fetishes to which I have been exposed… this Jingoism Fetish is by far the nastiest I’ve run across.

  • Why is “indivisable” capitalized?

  • rhodent

     Of course they include a brown one.  It’s for the middle girl’s hair…

  • I feel like their eyes should glow red and have a thought bubble above their head that reads “Brainsssssssss” 

  • The Captain

    To be fair I used to think the US had an overzealous flag fetish too. Then I went to Mexico City and wow, those guys make us look restrained.

  • Well, all kids get an exemption in that no kid can be forced to recite it.

    West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette (1943). The court held that schools may not coerce or force students into reciting the pledge, observing the existence of an individual right of conscience to sit silently while others recited. Most schools responded by making the pledge voluntary.

    http://www.enotes.com/education-reference/school-prayer-pledge-allegiance 

    Prior to that kids could be fined or expelled for refusing to recite the pledge (which of course didn’t even have the ‘Under God’ at that time)

  •  *nosetouches*

    One of the things I love about the Furry Fandom is the diversity.

  • Or anything really

  • So was Jesus, but they still follow him

  • Jett Perrobone

     Pleased to meet you, fellow furry! :3

    We should change “Under God” to “Under Dog!” 😉

  • Paul D.

    Speaking as a non-American, it’s downright creepy that they make children pledge allegiance to a political entity and it’s symbols.

  • Anonymous

     As a UK citizen who has “God Save The Queen” as a national anthem we’re double-f**ked.

  • Anonymous

    Symbols are all fine and good. All countries have them. But there is such a thing as taking it too far. The ridiculous Flag Code you mention (which some people actually think is binding law) is a great point

  • When I was a child, my elementary school class was forced to recite the pledge every morning. Of course, then, I though nothing of it. Now, I am adamantly against reciting (or at least, being forced to recite) the pledge. I think it’s ridiculous to pledge to a flag, even if it is supposed to stand for our country. There’s something about blind patriotism that creeps me out.

  •  I’m offended at the idea of killing bald eagles as well. They’re an endangered species, aren’t they?

  • Alexis

    When I was in high school and still considered myself a christian, I  came to the conclusion that the pledge was an act of idolatry.  To this day I can’t understand how any christian or Jew can participate.

  • Tom

    Oh, it’s “should,” is it?  If you hear the pledge, you *should* do this, that and the other?

  • Tom

     It’s not the act itself; it’s under what conditions it is performed.

  • Alexis

     Unfortunately, most school teachers and administrators are blithely unaware (uneducated) about this ruling.

  • That is unfortunate.  I can assure you that no matter what my son chooses to do, he’ll bloody well know he has a choice!

    (and if he’s anything like me, he’ll make sure everyone else knows it too)

  • Anonymous

    As a Briton, I’ve always found the US obsession with the flag a little odd. Now I’ve read the Bible I find it even stranger how so many can consider making idols a sin and still salute a piece of material.

  • Anonymous

    Hello mate (and he manages to confirm a stereotype in two words, might be a new record). I’ve never saluted a flag, though.

    Besides, I’ve always considered the Sex Pistols’ version of our anthem to have more resonance with me.

    I wonder if an American band would get away with a similarly irreverant version of the “Star Spangled Banner”?

  • No.

    See: ‘Rosanne Barr’

  • Anonymous

     Bruce Springsteen’s Born In The USA would appear to meet most criteria.

  • Atheist

    OMG! LOVE IT! A REAL MANS MAN!

  • Atheist

    OMG! LOVE IT! A REAL MANS MAN….

  • Atheist

    OMG! HI YA SARA!…LOVE YOU GIRL…..HAVE’T SEEN YOU OUT LATELY…YOU FEELING OKAY???

  • Atheist

    OMG! HOLY, HOLY, HOLY……GO ADAM…YOU HAPPY LITTLE CAMPER YOU! ARE YOU FREE NOW??

  • Atheist

    OMG!! HERE KITTY, KITTY, KITTY…I HAVE SOME LOAVES AND FISHES FOR YOU. DID YOU GET YOUR ____________ TAKEN CARE OF? JUS’ CHECKIN’ IN, I KNOW IT WAS SUCH A HASSLE….WHEWWW

  • Anonymous

    Isn’t that an anti-Vietnam song that was (hilariously) mis-construed? I wouldn’t say it was as irreverent as describing the head of state as “not a human being”.

  • Anonymous

    Awesome. Lots of boos but quite a few cheers in there too.

  • ATHEIST

    OMG! WHADDUP SARA! LOVE YA’ GIRL!

  • ATHEIST

    Dear Silo,

    Thank you for the question, speaking strictly as a real American, I must say; your comments are some what vague and perhaps a bit naive. While most modern cultures understand what the US Flag means we do understand the Canadian issues with Nationalism. Whilst your Country desn’t have a real military; you depend on the USA’s protection. Think on it, study this message and you will realise how dependent your mind is with the socialist system of our nothern neighbors.

    Have a great day Milo…I mean Silo.

    🙂

  • Atheist

    Hey ya’ Thomas! Happy Easter! Tell Mom hi.

  • Not sure what you’re complaining about.  They clearly have 2 boys and 2 girls. Isn’t that diversity?  I mean, if they had 1 girl, that would be a token,  but TWO girls?  That’s progress!