Sanford D. Horn: Should the obese fatten the government budget?
Plucking obese children from their parents is the ultimate in “nanny-statism.”
Dr. David Ludwig, an obesity specialist at Children’s Hospital Boston and Lindsey Murtagh, an attorney and researcher with Harvard’s School of Public Health, want to extract obese children from their homes and away from their parents for a government intervention.
Ludwig and Murtagh want to place these children in foster care, as if that system is without fault. Should the anorexic be removed from their homes as well? How about the bulimic? How about those with ADHD? What about children who refuse to study? Where should the line be drawn?
This is the same government running a perpetually failing postal system, AMTRAK, motor vehicle departments and public schools at federal, state and local levels. This is another example of an overreaching government exerting their kung-fu grip on the American people. The continuing notion that government can better raise our children should put fear in our hearts and minds not unlike that of Nazi Germany.
Government is partially responsible for the rise in childhood obesity. Examine the fat-laden school lunches and now breakfasts shoved down the throats of low-income students. How many schools have eliminated physical education, extra-curricular sports and other exercise-based activities in the name of budget cuts? Society will pay the piper regarding the rising cost of health care and dependency upon Medicare and Medicaid.
Also consider the numerous teens unable to secure part-time and/or summer employment. The overrun of illegal aliens storming our borders to “do the jobs Americans won’t do,” the oft-repeated mantra of many turning a blind eye to the epidemic of illegal immigration, keeps ever-fattening teens on the couch.
Make no mistake; parents also must carry the weight of irresponsibility for stuffing their children with fast food and allowing them to lounge around playing video games or enjoying faux lives on-line.
Here’s an idea for a job creator: parenting school. Folks need licenses to drive, teach, work as accountants, electricians and plumbers, but not the most vital of all jobs – parenting.
Yes, the American people have a collective obesity problem, but so too does the government who instead of cutting its own fat, wants to add more bureaucracy and spend more money it does not have on programs that will ultimately fail like their numerous predecessors. Stop spending tax-payer money on public school diversity manuals as in Nebraska and get the children into the gym.
Sanford D. Horn is an educator and writer living in Westfield, Ind.
Sanford D. Horn: Happy Birthday to U.S.
“The Declaration of Independence [is the] declaratory charter of our rights, and the rights of man.” – Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826); Founding Father; credited author of said document and third American president.
A housekeeping note – I dislike the expression “happy fourth of July.” Happy Independence Day is the correct expression or happy birthday America is acceptable. We the people are celebrating our independence from the tyrannical shackles of King George III and that of England. Every country has a fourth of July, but not every country has independence.
The long road toward independence did not end on July 4, 1776 – that was merely the date we the people declared enough was enough from England. Enough taxation without representation, enough quartering British soldiers at colonist’s expense, enough passing of laws unilaterally without regard to their effect on the people, enough denying the people local representation who would understand the needs and problems the colonists faced, enough deprivation of trial by jury to the people, enough denying the people the right to trade freely with other international partners, and enough of the general and overall usurpation of rights and freedoms, at a whim, given to free people.
Sadly, only 235 years since that declaration, this country finds itself once again at a crossroads fighting against a government that refuses to listen to the people. We the people have a government more strongly supporting eminent domain than ever before, thinking it knows what is best for the people. We the people have a government hell bent on stealing our freedoms one by one by denying us the right to make our own decisions regarding health care.
“I think we have more machinery of government than is necessary, too many parasites living on the labor of the industrious.” – Thomas Jefferson. Imagine what he would think of the monstrosity called the federal government in 2011 instead of 1811. The bigger the government, the more far-reaching into our pockets and the firmer the grip it has on our rights and freedoms.
Both major political parties are complicit in allowing our borders to remain porous and unchecked. Both parties have taxed and spent this country into ever deepening debt and deficits that virtually all its members are complicit in not just stealing from the American people, but from future generations. More than 80 percent of the acts committed by the Congress – those elected members of the federal government we sent to represent us – are actually unconstitutional.
While on the subject of what is or is not constitutional, message to Barack Obama: spreading the wealth around: unconstitutional. “Charity is no part of the legislative duty of the government.” – Founding Father James Madison (1751-1836); credited author of the United States Constitution and fourth American president.
“Governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed…” – Thomas Jefferson; The Declaration of Independence. Those who seek our support and votes are also answerable to us as well. They must be held accountable every day – they work for us – not the other way around.
Heed this message: don’t let the other guy worry about our country – take personal responsibility – learn about candidates and vote on Election Day – every year – not just in presidential elections. The ignorant can be enslaved, the learned can prevent tyranny.
Tyranny can also be prevented by the preparation and strength of our defenses. We have our freedoms because of the determination of a military willing to sacrifice their most precious and ultimate gifts – their lives – then, as well as today. From the Revolutionary War to the War on Terror in Iraq and Afghanistan and all wars and conflicts in between, it is the military – the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, Coast Guard and reservists that preserve our rights and freedoms and enable us to live in peace in the United States.
“To be prepared for war, is one of the most effectual means of preserving peace.” – Founding Father George Washington (1732-1799); Revolutionary War general and first American president.
“Independence forever.” – The last public words of John Adams (1735-1826); Founding Father who, for some time, stood alone in pushing for Independence from England before it became popular and second American president. The nation mourned the loss of Adams and his friend and rival Jefferson simultaneously as the two giants died on July 4, 1826.
Sanford D. Horn is a writer and educator living in Westfield, Ind. The 10 year city resident still keeps a finger on the pulse of Alexandria.
Sanford D. Horn: Of cowards and crybabies
With adult supervision being restored in the governor’s mansions in Madison, Wisc.I, Columbus, Ohio, Richmond, Va. and Trenton, N.J., the GOP is keeping its promises of cutting budgets – and not with a scalpel, but with the necessary hacksaw.
In abject cowardice, Wisconsin’s 14 Democratic state senators fled the Dairy State to shun their jobs, jobs that the voters elected them to perform. As fast as they fled, they should be fired via recall. We will stay away “as long as it takes,” said Democrat Sen. Jon Erpenbach of his party’s unwillingness to conduct their sworn duties, inclusive of which is to participate in the budgetary process. A budget that includes the salaries these scofflaws are still collecting while on the lam.
Similar to Ohio Gov. John Kasich and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker is calling for a scaled back benefits package for public employees as well as greater contributions for their own healthcare and retirement programs. Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell is also on record publicly supporting Walker in his quest to rein in the out of control spending and keep the union rapscallions at bay.
There has been an ongoing debate between public and private sectors regarding benefits and tax breaks. Public means their salaries are paid by tax dollars from all employees, public and private. Private companies may set their respective bars as they see fit and workers may opt in or out of such employment. The same is true of public employees.
Wisconsin is in the midst of a $3.6 billion budget shortfall. Gov. Walker proposes public employees raise their healthcare participation from five to 12.4 percent. The public sector average is 20 percent. Additionally, Walker is requesting public employees contribute 5.8 percent of their wages into the Wisconsin pension system – also less than that of the private sector’s average participation in its various retirement funds. And for this Walker is called a “tyrant” and a “dictator.”
There are those objecting to Gov. Walker giving tax breaks to private businesses who have forgotten a basic economic axiom; private business creates jobs which fills the government coffers. Public employee’s largesse comes from those government coffers. Empty coffers equals fewer public employees, thus equaling a reduction in services provided.
The more public employees demand or out-earn what is incoming to the state treasury, the more the level of sustainability drops until a state is bankrupt. This leads to what happened in Oregon a few years ago when public schools were shut down more than a month early as the well had run dry. This creates a danger to society.
Gov. Christie told a group of complaining teachers that if they were not satisfied with his plans, they could quit their jobs, with plenty of people ready to step up and fill those vacancies. These were folks crying poverty for being asked to kick in one percent more for their cushy-tushy benefits package, and with salaries over $80,000 a year.
I will not castigate the teaching profession – as it is an under-respected and underappreciated profession – for making $80,000 a year – those are veteran teachers who have been on the job for decades.
Nor will I join the ignorant who suggest teachers have it easy with summers off and days ending at 3:30 p.m.
Dedicated teachers, and there are many, are often in their classrooms before 7:30 a.m. and required to work through lunch. They are typically still in school at or after 6 p.m. – coaching, tutoring, grading homework and other materials as well as working into the night and on weekends at home to write lesson plans, deal with parents and administrators.
Summers for teachers are typically about six weeks out of the classroom, but that time is needed to recharge their mental batteries, or in many cases for research and furthering their own education. I know, having walked the walk for seven years as a teacher of social studies and American History.
In Wisconsin, it is against the law for teachers to strike. The teacher-protesters are engaged in a massive sick-out. They are being supported by doctors who are writing excuses for the teachers to bring back to their schools – in many cases these activities are taking place on the very streets where the protests are being held amongst total strangers. These doctors are committing fraud and should be sanctioned by their governing body. Perhaps the licenses of the complicit doctors should be suspended for a year with a concomitant loss of wages.
Striking teachers ought to be fired, a la the air traffic controllers in 1981. Supporters of striking teachers say the educators are not subject to dismissal as a work stoppage does not create a danger to society as the striking air traffic controllers did.
I disagree.
Striking teachers keep children out of class and allow them to fall further behind in the learning process. A prolonged strike would necessitate the students completing the school year when the strike is settled. Will the students be subjected to attending school for longer hours during the day and perhaps early evening? What about weekends and summer? What about religious prohibitions preventing students from attending school on their Sabbaths – be it Saturday or Sunday? What about parents whose schedules don’t allow for a longer day or paid vacations in the summer that would need to be forfeited?
Teachers’ union leaders are more to blame than the majority of their rank and file. They are in business to zealously defend their clientele. Failure to do so is demonstrative of their inability to do their jobs, thus making them irrelevant. However, union leaders are paid, strike or no strike, while strikers are literally out in the cold – many wondering how long they can survive without a paycheck.
There are thousands of out of work, qualified, eager teachers ready to step in and give the children what they need – a quality education – thus avoiding danger to our society by keeping them from the classrooms and the knowledge they so desperately need to compete in the ever so challenging global society.
A note to striking public employees, including teachers – perhaps you need to revisit your history textbooks. Just because Governor Walker is asking for greater health care and pension package contributions from workers does not make Walker a “Hitler” as is being depicted by the protesters in Madison. Save that vitriol for the real villains.
Sanford D. Horn is a writer and political consultant living in Alexandria.
Sanford D. Horn: Remembering Ronald Reagan
As Americans prepare to celebrate and commemorate the life of one of our greatest and most popular presidents, Ronald Wilson Reagan, I am reminded of something said by the current White House occupant.
In Tucson he called for a return to civility. That said, I harkened back to when President Reagan could criticize specific policy and legislative proposals without sinking into the mud with name calling and personal attacks, and also enjoy a drink with then House Speaker Tip O’ Neill (D-MA).
Reagan was a man of genuine folksy charm. He could disarm political foes with the turn of a phrase, an amusing anecdote or a simple wink and a smile.
Proof of this was never more evident than during the October 21, 1984 presidential debate with Democratic nominee Walter Mondale when Reagan was asked about the age factor. After all, Reagan was 73 years old when he sought reelection. Reagan turned the tables saying, “I will not make age an issue of this campaign. I am not going to exploit, for political purposes, my opponent’s youth and inexperience,” to the complete roar and applause from the audience. Even Mondale cracked a smile.
Yet, Reagan could play hardball with the best of them. “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall,” he implored regarding the Berlin Wall on June 12, 1987. And with the release of the hostages held for 444 days in Iran, was there any question why that event coincided with the first inauguration of President Reagan? The Iranians certainly did not fear Jimmy Carter.
Above all, with Reagan the United States was getting a president, a Commander in Chief and a leader who would restore confidence in the American people, who would give people a reason to have pride in being American once again – a president who had a vision for a brighter future and a stronger America both at home and abroad.
Ronald Reagan did not put on airs and could certainly be stoic – delivering a most stirring speech upon the horrific Challenger explosion on January 28, 1986. “We mourn their loss as a nation together… We don’t hide our space program… We do it all up front and in public. That’s the way freedom is, and we wouldn’t change it for a minute. We’ll continue our quest in space…
“The crew of the space shuttle Challenger honored us by the manner in which they lived their lives. We will never forget them, nor the last time we saw them, this morning, as they prepared for their journey and waved goodbye and slipped the surly bonds of earth, to touch the face of G-d,” concluded Reagan without the need for any embarrassing shout-outs.
Ronald Reagan was a leader not reliant upon poll numbers. Nor did he find it necessary to resort to referring to those on the other side of the aisle as enemies. Reagan was more intellectual, intelligent and curious then the credit given him by a media, that was, and remains, with little exception, left of center. There was no Fox News, Sean Hannity or Mark Levin.
Yet, President Reagan, in spite of the Democrat majority in the House during his two terms, managed to restore dignity to the United States. America once again became that “shining city on a hill,” as people returned to work while interest rates and tax rates began dropping.
“Common sense told us that when you put a big tax on something, the people will produce less of it. So, we cut the people’s tax rates, and the people produced more than ever before,” said Reagan on January 11, 1989 in his farewell address to America.
The United States must return to a more civil tone and discourse. The lessons learned from Ronald Reagan, the first president for whom I voted, are just as applicable now, if not more so, as we celebrate his centennial.
Words have meaning. Let’s use more of them, not fewer because somebody objects to certain words. When words fail, uncivilized behavior soon follows.
Ronald Reagan was never at a loss for words. Honor the memory of the Great Communicator and his spirit shall endure forever.
Sanford D. Horn is a writer and political consultant living in Alexandria.
Sanford D. Horn: Stone’s sense of history is rocky
Film director Oliver Stone is right. Now before all who know me wonder if I am not suffering from heat stroke, let me clarify the statement.
“We can’t judge people as only bad or good,” said Stone in his defense of both Stalin and Hitler in recent comments castigating the United States for its disproportionate focus on the Holocaust.
Stone was right in that apparently Hitler liked dogs.
Other than that, Stone couldn’t be more wrong that there are redeeming qualities in Stalin, Hitler, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez. Chavez has been pointedly anti-American and anti-Semitic and Ahmadinejad has long called for the eradication of Israel from the map both figuratively and literally. Stone defended all four monsters in an interview with the Sunday Times of Britain.
Stone’s sense of history is about as fictional as the garbage he writes and passes off as fine cinema as he said “Hitler did far more damage to the Russians than the Jewish people – 25 or 30 million killed.” Stalin was responsible for more deaths of his fellow countrymen than any outside forces. And is Stone suggesting that six million murdered Jewish men, women and children is acceptable because more Russians were slaughtered? Do the math Ollie, no group was marked for evisceration or suffered per capita losses like the Jewish people. Is Stone being a provocateur or is he simply a pernicious insolent anti-Semite and Hitler apologist who clearly hasn’t read a history book? I believe the latter.
Of course Stone makes such delusional remarks to an overseas reporter which will be widely ignored by the mainstream media. Yet, paradoxically, if Stone’s next statement were actually valid, the so-called mainstream media would be all over this interview like cream cheese on a bagel. Stone was asked why there is such a fervent focus upon the Holocaust in the US, to which he said, “the Jewish domination of the media.”
Were the media dominated by Jews as Stone suggests, I should have a nationally syndicated column by now. Clearly Stone is drinking Kool Aid served up by fellow readers of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, a popular screed bandied about when anti-Semites need a scapegoat for their own inadequacies.
Stone further demonstrated his faulty knowledge of history saying that Stalin “fought the German war machine more than any person.” Once again, Ollie, a little knowledge is a dangerous thing, and in your case, very little knowledge is very dangerous, especially since you have a public forum from which to rant and rave.
In an effort to avoid a two-front war, Hitler had learned from the failures of World War I, and forged an agreement with Stalin’s Soviets in August of 1939 – the Nazi-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact. This was weeks before the Nazi invasion of Poland and more than a year after Hitler had already swallowed up the Sudetenland. First came an economic agreement, followed by the Non-Aggression Pact itself. Stalin gave Hitler carte blanche to cut through Poland and Western Europe like a hot knife through butter. The 10-year deal lasted only until June 22, 1941 when Germany launched a surprise attack on the Soviet Union, thus forcing Stalin’s armies to fight the Nazis.
While the United States did not enter the war until the day after the dastardly and craven attack by the Japanese on Pearl Harbor, December 7, 1941, and President Franklin Roosevelt was certainly no friend of the Jewish people, American fighting forces took on the Nazis and the Japanese in a fever pitch two-front war. Although the war for the Allies did not start off well, in time they vanquished all enemies and attempted to restore some semblance of order in the ruins of Europe.
Oliver Stone is certainly entitled to his opinion – this is the difference between conservatives and liberals. Liberals don’t like someone’s opinion, they seek to have it quashed, while conservatives offer a differing opinion and remind people that their words, thoughts and ideas have consequences. For Stone, those consequences should be failure at the box office. Perhaps eh should cast Mel Gibson in his next film. I have not, for years, put dime one in Stone’s pockets due to his lugubrious sentiments both anti-American and anti-Semitic. I will continue my personal boycott of Stone films. What you do, is up to your conscience to decide.
Sanford D. Horn is a writer and political consultant living in Alexandria.
Sanford D. Horn: Voting no-confidence in government
Column by Sanford D. Horn
Submit guest columns: freepress2@ntelos.net
Here’s a shocking revelation: government, regardless of the party in power, does not create jobs. Confidence in government, however, is a driving force in job creation by the private sector.
Giving government unfettered freedom to run roughshod over our Creator-endowed rights – that hinders job creation. When government passes legislation it typically closes doors instead of opening them. By its nature, government is restrictive – it tells the people what they can’t do.
This is the beauty of the Constitution – it limits what government can do – not what the people can do. Since the ratification of the Bill of Rights in 1791, however, government has done as much as it can do to control, limit and even shackle the people by thwarting the noble efforts of a free people to be creative, innovative and inventive. The pinnacle of this destructive trend is the coddling and patronizing attempts to stifle the creative process by using taxpayer dollars to bail out corporations seen as too big to fail in the eyes of this administration. Continue reading “Sanford D. Horn: Voting no-confidence in government” »
Sanford D. Horn: Many villains, no heroes
Column by Sanford D. Horn
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Rahm Emanuel is the opportunist’s opportunist. The Obama administration chief of staff first said “never let a serious crisis go to waste.” Then, this past weekend, Emanuel referred to Congressman Joe Barton’s apology to BP as a “gift,” demonstrative of how the GOP would behave. For that, Emanuel is a villain.
Texas Republican Joe Barton chided the Obama administration last week for “shaking down” BP to the tune of $20 billion, in the form of an apology to the beleaguered oil company. Barton then redacted his apology to BP, no doubt under pressure from key GOP leadership, who may have threatened to relieve Barton of his ranking position on the Energy and Commerce Committee. For his backpedaling, Barton is a villain. Continue reading “Sanford D. Horn: Many villains, no heroes” »
Sanford D. Horn: Voting wrongs, gun rights
Column by Sanford D. Horn
Submit guest columns: freepress2@ntelos.net
The Washington Post, the alleged newspaper of record for the nation’s capitol and its metropolitan area, over the past seven days ending with Saturday, April 24, 2010, ran six articles, editorials or columns each decrying the lack of voting rights yet to bestowed upon the residents of the District of Columbia. Continue reading “Sanford D. Horn: Voting wrongs, gun rights” »
Sanford D. Horn | Omnibus bill proving ominous
With Congress prepared to throw another 410 billion of our taxpayer dollars out the window on superfluous projects many of which had previously been rejected at the state level, a few Democrats are finally waking up to smell the Arabica beans. Continue reading “Sanford D. Horn | Omnibus bill proving ominous” »
Sanford D. Horn | Master of his domain, but little else
In his first primetime press conference Barack Obama was certainly master of his domain – holding court in a campaign-like speech interrupted by the occasional question.
Obama’s goal, clearly, was to remind the American people who won in November and who’s in charge today with his continued fearmongering imploring Congress to hurry up and pass the albatross of our grandchildren’s future – the so-called stimulus package. In that, he succeeded, however, the so-called stimulus package that he optioned out to Nancy Pelosi, Harry “I Can Smell the Tourists” Reid and their merry band of liberals is still the same spending orgy. Continue reading “Sanford D. Horn | Master of his domain, but little else” »
Sanford D. Horn | RINO virus striking the Senate
With the potential, even likely, defections of senators Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe along with Arlen Specter, Barack Obama’s scare tactics may succeed in garnering enough so-called Republican votes in order to secure passage of the heinous alleged stimulus proposal. Continue reading “Sanford D. Horn | RINO virus striking the Senate” »
Sanford D. Horn: Loyalty has its benefits
Posted by afp on October 21, 2011 · Leave a Comment
Not once again, but thrice again, political correctness rears its vile and unsavory head. Within the span of a week three incidents in three southern states have occurred that should make the hair of any patriot stand up on end. If they don’t, then perhaps you are not paying attention to the fast track down the road to hell this country is traversing.
An Olive Garden in Oxford, AL denied a local Kiwanis club’s attempt to hang an American flag in the restaurant prior to their banquet. Darden, the parent company of Olive Garden claimed the lack of a private dining room led to the anti-American decision.
“To be fair to everyone and avoid disrupting the dining experience for all other guests, they’re unable to accommodate flags or banners of any type in the dining room,” said a statement from a nameless official from the corporate offices in Orlando, FL.
Darden is also the parent company of Red Lobster, Longhorn Steakhouse, The Capitol Grille, Bahama Breeze and Seasons 52. For their patently anti-American attitude and the disrespect shown to a meaningful civic organization as Kiwanis, I will certainly not “disrupt” a single Darden restaurant with my business or economic support.
Quite frankly listening to a half dozen waiters and waitresses butchering “Happy Birthday” so badly that Simon Cowell would lose his lunch is disrupting to me.
I strenuously implore the over 275,000 Kiwanis International members to do likewise and not give another dollar or euro to any Darden restaurant in their cadre. They can live up to their motto of “Serving the Children of the World,” and set an example for others.
Unfortunately, the Kiwanis did not respond with their wallets in this instance by taking their business elsewhere. Instead, Marti Warren, 80, of Anniston, AL told the banquet attendees to imagine the flag while they recited the pledge.
Another flag flap occurred with the firing of Sean May, 26, a now former employee of Casa Monica Hotel in St. Augustine, FL for wearing an American flag on his jacket lapel. And while the employee handbook bars the donning of any and all pins, buttons, etc., a mega-sized American flag hangs high and majestically above the posh hotel.
May, a two-year employee of Casa Monica said he has worn the flag every day on the job and is often complimented for it by patrons. Ironically, Casa Monica has had a change in management and has been quoted as wanting to revamp its image. Firing a loyal employee for demonstrating pride in his country will tarnish, not enhance, the image of a hotel where May, a front desk supervisor was the first line of welcome to out of town guests.
We live in an era when pride in one’s country is waning due to an abominable so-called leader who spends his time on his apology tour around the globe as thousands of capricious, spoiled malcontents make irresponsible and unconscionable demands of the government and the banking system. May ought to be applauded for doing his job well and with aplomb while clearly having a positive impact on guests who management should hope would return to enjoy the amenities the property has to offer.
Casa Monica is one of 10 upscale lodging properties owned by The Kessler Enterprise, Inc., and whose CEO is Richard Kessler. In addition to Florida, Kessler Enterprises hotels are also located in Colorado, Georgia, New Mexico and North Carolina. I urge anyone with a reservation at one of the Kessler properties to cancel with support of May as the reason and suggest future reservations be made at non-Kessler hotels.
While the Casa Monica and any privately owned business has the right to set its dress code, code of conduct and policies for its employees, to fire someone for demonstrating pride in his country with a simple lapel pin is outrageous. Perhaps that particular rule ought to be amended. Some hotels have not just the names of their employees on their name tags, but their country of origin as well. I have front desk hotel experience and also adorned my jacket with an American flag lapel pin.
In addition to the flag friction, there is an even more insidious situation of political correctness that must be addresses.
In a McAllen, TX high school, the Spanish class of sophomore Brenda Brinsdon, 15, has been forced to not only memorize, but sing the Mexican national anthem as well as recite the Mexican pledge of allegiance. This too is unconscionable and fostering not just loyalty toward a foreign nation, but disloyalty to the United States. After all, these are still impressionable students, many of whom go along to get along without questioning.
Bravo to young Miss Brinsdon for video recording the activities in her class, bringing the to the attention of her father, who equally outraged, and rightfully so, complained to the school district administrators. The response the father received was support of the teacher by the district, comparing the lesson to the teaching of Shakespeare or poetry.
In seven years of Spanish at the junior high school, high school and college levels there was no memorization of any foreign anthem or pledge required. Learning the alphabet, verb tenses, vocabulary, cultures of Spanish speaking nations, conversational Spanish, ordering from menus and the like was the order of the day in Spanish class, not an attempt at indoctrination of impressionable youths.
There is little enough loyalty toward this country, encouraging loyalty to another is just another example of the dangers of political correctness run amok. Between the schools and the businesses too afraid to demonstrate national pride, apparently a refresher in Being a Proud American 101 should be mandatory course in today’s America.
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