Pledging to be a Servant

[Dani Cutler]

There has been a video going around by Penn Jillette regarding a video that a bunch of hollywood stars have put out about "Pledging". His concern is regarding two specific lines in the 4 minute video:

"I pledge to be of service to Barack Obama" (said by Anthony Kiedis of The Red Hot Chili Peppers)

and at the end Ashton Kutchner and Demi Moore say, "Be a servant to the President". On Twitter and Facebook all the JFK quotes starting coming out about not asking what your country can do for you, everyone is all up-in-arms about it, etc etc.. So naturally I had to go and see what all the hub-bub was for myself. :-)

Here's the "I Pledge" video:

And here is Penn's response video (which he has embedding disabled): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xdf4uYnMmkg

Now, I get it. Pledging service to a president sounds creepy on the surface. One of the things that really gets my liberal panties in a bunch is how everyone is so quick to take sides and jump on a bandwagon simply because they are of a certain party, and you happen to be a member of said party. In my opinion it's one of the biggest destroyers of any real debate and progress in this country. I personally believe in pledging myself to causes, and not people.

However, in thinking a little deeper on this, I thought about the military. The President is our military's Commander in Chief. He's (supposedly) the person that every member of the military needs to answer to ultimately. Therefore, using that logic, would it be fair to say that all in the military serve the President, whose office is an extension of our Country? They do have an oath:

""I, _____, do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; and that I will obey the orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me, according to regulations and the Uniform Code of Military Justice. So help me God." (Title 10, US Code; Act of 5 May 1960 replacing the wording first adopted in 1789, with amendment effective 5 October 1962)."

I guess what I'm trying to figure out is the difference. Why is serving your President through military service acceptable, yet serving him to make our country better through acts of humanity and just being a better person in general wrong?

Should we start a petition to change the military oath?

[Dani Cutler]

Well, you get no argument from me. However, that's the way it's always been. Didn't Reagan have that album come out in the 60's about the evils of Socialism? ;-)

As for the school speech, I didn't post it here, but I went for the parental jugular over on my local paper's website:

http://www.azcentral.com/members/Blog/Dani8600/61987

We actually staged a "counter protest". Since our school wasn't showing it, because they caved to the hype, a group of us brought our kids in late, met for breakfast and watched the speech at one of the parents' homes. When we called in we told the school exactly why our kids were late.

Fight the power! LOL!

[Trent Rock]

The bigger issue to me is WHY are people (voters?) listening to what Hollywood stars want?

It's the same with the election ads
If anyone bases their vote on a TV AD..that is a sad commentary on the US voter
Why not research the issues yourself and make your own decision?
I'm sure most of you here on this forum do
But, I have a feeling that some people out ther base their vote on what they see on the TV commercials ;(
You know, the ones with the dark music and that one lady narrator who sounds all scary
"Do you want YOUR CHILD paying for our debt?"......


All this hub bub over Obama's school speech

That was blown way outta proportion by the right leaning groups
Big deal
The president gave a speech at a school to school children
I watched Reagan's "touch the face of God" shuttle disaster speech in my electronics HS class
I don't feel brainwashed..........

[Davetopper]

Penn Jillette, is his own biggest joke. It's conservative immature text book when he says he doesn't know how to pronounce Demi or Kutcher's names. Says he doesn't know but it is meant as no disrespect. Also conservative textbook jargon, it's nothing but disrespect.

But like the speech on Tuesday, which is nothing more than a pep talk, people have come umhinged. Can you imagine a black president giving a booster speech to children? Never thought I would have lived to see that day. And many more do not want to.

If only that man was Colin Powell.