The Boerne Star (Boerne, Tex.), Vol. 102, No. 65, Ed. 1 Tuesday, August 12, 2008 Page: 11 of 16
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Tuesday, August 12, 2008
The BOERNE Star
Page 11
A moment of silence, please, as we consider our pledges
Well, school’s starting back
up soon, and as it does, it will
set into motion all of the many
activities that precede each edu-
cational day. Kids will struggle
to unknot sneaker laces while
wolfing down toast and moth-
ers will rake hair back into
ponytails while scrambling to
inventory backpacks. Car driv-
ers will forget their manners
in drop-off lanes while mak-
ing appointments on their cell
phones and teachers will mus-
ter a pretence of excitement
over being back while actually
wishing that summer vacation
could extend to some point just
shy of Thanksgiving.
In contrast to all the bright
new socks, crisp new notebooks
and pristine new pencil erasers
will stand time-worn traditions,
traditions long used to flip the
switch of every school day to
the “on” position.
I’m not one to take things
literally - I mean, I like a good
symbol just as well, if not more,
than the next person. So I’m not
sure exactly when it was that
I began to dislike vowing my
allegiance to a banner.
And when the Breadwinner
and I moved our children back
into this state, after several
years of living out-of-country,
I truly thought it was a joke
the first time I beheld students
somberly vowing their young
allegiance to the Texas flag.
“Honor the Texas flag,” is
how the incantation begins.
But what the Sam Hill does
this mean? What depths of pro-
fundity do these words plumb,
especially given that the Texas
flag appears on anything from
battered old Cadillac hoods, to
underwear to toilet seat covers.
And in fact, the Texas pledge
for many, many years actually
referred to a royal blue flag
with a centered yellow star - the
Burnet Flag, named for a sar-
donic-looking, Amish-bearded
politician - with nobody caring
enough to change the wording.
Any old how, I’m not at all
sure why we teach our chil-
dren to pledge their troth to a
state. Does this mean we vow
to grill only longhorn T-bone?
Does it mean we’re proud
to have seized a giant sized
chunk of our Mother Earth
from Mexico? Does it mean
we swear to continue sup-
porting the hairspray industry
as our state has so admira-
bly done for so many years?
What does it mean, this Texas
pledge? That we should never
move to Maine or Iowa?
Someone should ask all of
those innocent children who
so faithfully repeat the pledge-
words every day what it is
that they’re actually saying.
Because these are words that
are being imprinted into their
little minds; words that because
of their daily, endless (albeit
awkward) syntax our school-
children will forever be able
to recall to the tips of their
tongues.
Which leads me to our national
oath, a 31-word vow that, had I
composed it, my editor would
red-flag as a run-on sentence,
while its title, through our many
repetitions, we’ve managed to
cram into a five-syllabled sin-
gle word, i.e., “Please stand and
say the pledgeofallegiance.”
Imagine if wedded couples
were required to repeat their
vows every morning before
heading off to the office and
OFF THE MAIN
Elena
Tucker
the car-pool rounds. As my
man tries to get out the door
with his laptop and I clean up
a puddle of Ugly Dog pee,
we pause and state solemly,
“I-roast-beef-and-pickle-sand-
wich-maker-take-you-Bread-
winner-to-be-my-husband-to-
have-and-to-hold-from-this-
day-forward-for-better-or-for-
worse-for-richer-for-poorer-in-
sickness-and-in-health-to-love-
and-to-cherish-from-this-day-
forward-until-death-do-us-part.
Oh, and after your office
meeting don’t forget to call
me if you can take Sparky to
the dentist because I have an
appointment with the washing
machine repairman.”
A friend recently observed
that our young school students
might as well be reciting “Little-
Miss-Muffet-sat-on-a-tuffet-
eating-her-curds-and-whey,” for
all the significance the words to
the pledgeofallegiance create in
their day-in-day-out repetition.
Our little kids have most
likely grown completely inured
to what they’re saying, but
even if they do actually hear
the words, I don’t think they
probably understand what it all
means anyway. Heck, I don’t
understand what it means.
Thing is, am I swearing fealty
to a rectangle of dyed cloth that
is, in reality, no different in
substance than the T-shirt I’m
wearing? Or am I promising
to uphold my two-car garage,
university-level, dependable-
electricity, three-meal-a-day
way of life?
Am I vowing to fight to the
death in defense of policies with
which I may or may not agree?
Am I pledging my allegiance to
traffic laws and Oscar-winning
movies and mowed grass and
an abundance of theme parks
and malls?
Is my fealty being offered to a
host of government agencies or
historic heroes or to Valero and
Wal-Mart and Home Depot?
Is there some lost and abstract
ideal out there, somewhere, that
my words of oath somehow
represent?
Am I stating my loyalty to
something that I can’t really
understand but that I know to
be the best on earth anyhow?
I have never been asked to
intelligently examine patrio-
tism. I was never asked these
questions by my parents. I
was never asked these ques-
tions by my teachers. I was
never asked these questions
by anybody.
I’ve always been told, simply,
to say the' pledgeofallegiance,
as were the Old Fellers before
me and as have my children
after me. Every single morning
of every single school day. But
that’s not all.
Sparky tells me that after the
pledgeofallegiance comes the
momentofsilence, another five-
syllable word that is, I strongly
suspect, bewildering to a child
who might actually use the
momentofsilence to ponder
what the heck the momentofsi-
lence is for.
Few adults and fewer chil-
dren, I imagine, actually use the
time to pray, although that’s the
intended use.
Sparky tells me that the
momentofsilence is at least
three or four e-n-d-l-e-s-s
moments long. I feel fairly sure
that Sparky does not “reflect,
pray, (or) meditate,” as legisla-
tors intend that she should do.
Instead, I think she’s probably
doing just what the judge who’s
dealt with this issue is also
pretty sure that my daughter
is doing, that is, she’s taking a
moment to “stare at (her) shoes,
think about upcoming exams,
think about (her) pets.”
Of course I’d like it if Sparky
were pondering either the scale
of the cosmos, or how to main-
tain spiritual purity while she
fights for a turn on the swingset
or how her own faith inter-
connects or doesn’t with other
world religions.
I’d even like it if Sparky
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offered up a sincere and sweet,
“Help me to be kind and smart
and honest today.” I wouldn’t
even mind if Sparky used the
momentofsilence to figure out
what patriotism is and why
it might be important and if
pledging to the Texas flag
means that eventually she’ll be
uttering an oath of fealty to
Kendall County and the City of
Boerne as well.
Thing is, I’m pretty sure that
Sparky’s not going to think
about those things.
If I know Sparky, what she’s
actually thinking about is
the item that comes after the
momentofsilence.
If Iknow Sparky, she’s pricked
her ears and is saving her full
attention for what comes next.
Whether or not today’s the
day for cafeteria lasagna or
enchiladas.
Elena Tucker can be contacted
at elena@boernestar.com.
Beware of ethical behavior
There is a report in the paper
that our public servants may
decide to become ethical in their
behavior. This is good news
indeed and, who knows, if it
succeeds, it might even become
a trend and other towns could
pick up on it. Maybe even go
national. Hey, don’t be cynical.
Anything is possible.
Still, I wonder if they under-
fray. The old idea of the “right
of kings” did not disappear - it
only took on a new guise in
which the “right” was made
n . more diffuse.
Ed Davis So, let us not speak of eth-
ics, which is the lowest form
of morality. Let us speak of
honesty, integrity, selfless-
---------ness. Christ told us the way
Almost every group has or to become a leader was to
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stand what they are doing. Ethics has had such a code. In the become a servant..In evaluat-
is supposed to be concerned eyes of the government they ing the people who spend our
with shades of good and evil in all fall into the realm of price- money and make our laws,
the minds of most of us. fixing and collusive conduct, let us evaluate them in this
Even Webster seems to buy And I suppose they were, or fashion.
in on this definition. His pri- are, but how was the govern- The fact is, though, that there
mary definition suggests this ment to know that? is no way to police a code of
and then he goes on to talk of Which brings us back to ethics. If we are to tolerate
codes of behavior among pro- Boerne and what will probably council and “staff’ indulging
fessional groups. be a non-event. How is City in acts that promote financial
He should have let it alone Council going to police the self-interest or glory, we can
while he was ahead. administration. How is it going only do so with some sort
Professional codes of ethics to police itself? of watchdog with teeth in his
have little to do with moral- They could all behave even- mouth.
ity or the distinction between handedly among themselves We do not have that. We will
good and bad, unless you con- and still do us citizens in. After never have that. That watch
sider a set of rules designed all, they all look at themselves in dog is we the people and we
to protect the members of a their official capacity as promot- do not have much in the way
profession from each other as ers of the city, not the people. of teeth, nor a rabid inclination
a moral code. The government has always to bite.
Nowhere is this more evident seen itself as some sort of god So, do not expect your lives
than in the real estate business whose pronouncements and to be changed for the better
where the profession has strug- acts, no matter how egregious, when the council asks “staff’
gled long and mightily and as being right because that is to draw up a proposed set of
unceasingly to effect a sort of what governments do. ethics.
mass Mexican standoff among It is against the law for me answers t0 puzzle on pqe 8
themselves. But they are not to engage in a gambling enter- P P9
the only ones, by far. prise (and that is because our
In the engineering profession government was formed along
we used to have a code of eth- the lines of the Judeo-Christian
ics, but I think the government Ethic, no matter all the rheto-
has made it largely illegal. We, ric to the contrary) but it is
for instance, agreed we would perfectly all right for the gov-
all charge the same reasonable ernment to do so.
fee and not resort to bidding It is OK for the government to
for work. We would do our sell arms to any little jumped-up
best not to steal each other’s dictatorship it likes, but it is a
clients unless it was absolutely terrible crime for me to do so.
necessary.
Government is above the
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Cartwright, Brian. The Boerne Star (Boerne, Tex.), Vol. 102, No. 65, Ed. 1 Tuesday, August 12, 2008, newspaper, August 12, 2008; Boerne, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1667327/m1/11/: accessed July 17, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Patrick Heath Public Library.