‘With all due respect, ma'am, you can go jump off a bridge.'

This story gives me hope for, well, our culture, kids today, and the eventual chipping away at prejudice in our society. Oh and that the constitution and the ideals on which is was founded are still kicking ass.


A boy and his flag

Will Phillips isn't like other boys his age.

For one thing, he's smart. Scary smart. A student in the West Fork School District in Washington County, he skipped a grade this year, going directly from the third to the fifth. When his family goes for a drive, discussions are much more apt to be about Teddy Roosevelt and terraforming Mars than they are about Spongebob Squarepants and what's playing on Radio Disney.

It was during one of those drives that the discussion turned to the pledge of allegiance and what it means. Laura Phillips is Will's mother. "Yes, my son is 10," she said. "But he's probably more aware of the meaning of the pledge than a lot of adults. He's not just doing it rote recitation. We raised him to be aware of what's right, what's wrong, and what's fair."

Will's family has a number of gay friends. In recent years, Laura Phillips said, they've been trying to be a straight ally to the gay community, going to the pride parades and standing up for the rights of their gay and lesbian neighbors. They've been especially dismayed by the effort to take away the rights of homosexuals – the right to marry, and the right to adopt. Given that, Will immediately saw a problem with the pledge of allegiance.

"I've always tried to analyze things because I want to be lawyer," Will said. "I really don't feel that there's currently liberty and justice for all."

After asking his parents whether it was against the law not to stand for the pledge, Will decided to do something. On Monday, Oct. 5, when the other kids in his class stood up to recite the pledge of allegiance, he remained sitting down. The class had a substitute teacher that week, a retired educator from the district, who knew Will's mother and grandmother. Though the substitute tried to make him stand up, he respectfully refused. He did it again the next day, and the next day. Each day, the substitute got a little more cross with him. On Thursday, it finally came to a head. The teacher, Will said, told him that she knew his mother and grandmother, and they would want him to stand and say the pledge.

"She got a lot more angry and raised her voice and brought my mom and my grandma up," Will said. "I was fuming and was too furious to really pay attention to what she was saying. After a few minutes, I said, 'With all due respect, ma'am, you can go jump off a bridge.' "

Will was sent to the office, where he was given an assignment to look up information about the flag and what it represents. Meanwhile, the principal called his mother.

"She said we have to talk about Will, because he told a sub to jump off a bridge," Laura Phillips said. "My first response was: Why? He's not just going to say this because he doesn't want to do his math work."

Eventually, Phillips said, the principal told her that the altercation was over Will's refusal to stand for the pledge of allegiance, and admitted that it was Will's right not to stand. Given that, Laura Phillips asked the principal when they could expect an apology from the teacher. "She said, 'Well I don't think that's necessary at this point,' " Phillips said.

After Phillips put a post on the instant-blogging site twitter.com about the incident, several of her friends got angry and alerted the news media. Meanwhile, Will Phillips still refuses to stand during the pledge of allegiance. Though many of his friends at school have told him they support his decision, those who don't have been unkind, and louder.

"They [the kids who don't support him] are much more crazy, and out of control and vocal about it than supporters are."

Given that his protest is over the rights of gays and lesbians, the taunts have taken a predictable bent. "In the lunchroom and in the hallway, they've been making comments and doing pranks, and calling me gay," he said. "It's always the same people, walking up and calling me a gaywad."

Even so, Will said that he can't foresee anything in the near future that will make him stand for the pledge. To help him deal with the peer pressure, his parents have printed off posts in his support on blogs and websites. "We've told him that people here might not support you, but we've shown him there are people all over that support you," Phillips said. "It's really frustrating to him that people are being so immature."

At the end of our interview, I ask young Will a question that might be a civics test nightmare for your average 10-year-old. Will's answer, though, is good enough - simple enough, true enough - to give me a little rush of goose pimples. What does being an American mean?

"Freedom of speech," Will says, without even stopping to think. "The freedom to disagree. That's what I think pretty much being an American represents."

Somewhere, Thomas Jefferson smiles.

What kind of puff piece does GoogleNews think I am?

I don't know who GoogleNews thinks I am. But I don't like it.

Lately, all my recommended news articles are all fluffy entertainment gossip. So, all week I've been clicking on hard news articles about Iran, Health Care, Afghanistan, Wall Street. Ok and maybe a review of Glee. And Gossip Girl. But also G20, the Olympic bid. Oh, and Kanye.

Hmm, maybe GoogleNews does know me. Still, I don't like it.

I saw my shadow (and I wept)

Randomness to follow (mostly thoughts from the past couple weeks):

• I love Obama. We know that I love Obama. I'm all about slurping up the Kool Aid. And I was pretty damn happy about all of his nominations. And then like dominoes, they keep falling. Weird, right, that Hillary seems to be the least controversial. Even with her husband cozing up to all those foreign nationals?

• Apparently, Daschle and Geithner are on board with tax increases for the wealthy, because well, they just don't pay all their taxes.

• And the pen, it appears, is pretty mighty. Or at least the editorial is.

• The City is the worst show. Ever. And yet I'm watching it. There's all kinds of fabricated drama, I mean real drama, and yet it still feels slow. But it's quotes like this that keep me coming back "You know you can trust me baby." I forgot that guys actually say things like that. Oh and I love that Olivia Palermo is so stereotypically bitchy and snotty. These people have no soul. And I love it.

• Blago-crazy - why isn't his PR firm writing his speeches? His rambling, pointless, emotionally, whiny plea to the Senate was, well, rambling, pointless and whiny. Did I mention pointless? And then the press conference in front of his house, that awkwardly wouldn't end. And he walked into the crowd and told some kid he would play ball with him sometime, and then continued to reiterate the fluff that he had already said. He's beginning to be like Starbucks. Enough already. You're on every corner and we're sick of you.
  

• Karaoke in South Haven, MI is serious stuff. They should do an American Idol audition there. There is a man named Bob, who has his name on his shirt, and man named Charles who sings Ray Charles, and young guy who looks a little Kevin Federlineish who sings love ballads and never cracks a smile. It's serious stuff..

• Damages is so great, Blair even referenced it on Gossip Girl. I'm so addicted I have to watch it at 9 and again at 10 to see if I missed anything. And I love that the main character is a tough bad ass girl who is smart, smart, smart.

• My apartment needs a steam cleaning from ceiling to floor. It looks like an agoraphobic had a break down there. Or, I didn't leave my apartment and didn't clean up after myself for like a week.

• I think my cat should pitch in and help me clean. Maybe scoop her own litter or wash a dish once in awhile. I think a lack of opposable thumbs is a poor excuse.

• I love chicago. I hate Chicago. This winter sucks. I have a hit out on Punxsutawney Phil.
  

Blagorageous claims of the day

He's being impeached because he tried to get pap smears for women.

He is the reason some kid got a new kidney.

He could have saved the housing crisis, but The House stood in his way (and made things worse), so you know, blame them if you lose your home.

He has a Poem of the day desktop calendar.



and I'm just curious about this sentence:
"...let me close by doing something that I probably won't do much after this, but I feel like doing it again since I did it not too long ago"
What?

[Sweet blog - Suntimes]

Roland Burris takes a break from the 3rd person

This is what unsettles me about Roland Burris, he kept beginning sentences with "Roland Burris."

I just have a hard time taking anyone serious who speaks in the third person.

The other thing, and well, this is bigger, he appears to be surprised that anyone would have issue with him accepting the appointment. If he had acknowledged that there is validity to everyone's concerns, it would almost feel OK to accept him as the appointee.

But maybe that's starting to crack a bit for him, today standing in the rain, he actually didn't seem surprised that he wasn't being sworn in, and for the entirety of the "press conference" (which was really more like a scene from Law & Order, with black umbrellas, rain and press surrounding the man on the steps of the gothic looking Capital Building) he didn't once refer to himself in the third person. So there's that.

Here's the thing, this is what I've been thinking about this fiasco:

There was an episode of Scrubs where Turk wanted to give Carla a gift, something personal to show her that he cared and that he got her, except he was a resident or an intern or some sort of quasi doctor and working all the time so he never found the time to go out and buy her a gift then he came across the Lost and Found box and inside among other random items was a pen. A beautiful expensive fountain pen. Carla liked writing letters so the pen was THE gift to give her. And she loved it and she loved him. Except one thing. After giving her the pen and her loving it, he discovers the hospital doesn't have a lost and found box. The hospital has a It's Been Removed From Someones Butt box. The pen doesn't seem so nice anymore, does it?

That would be the obvious reaction to the appointment. At least to me.

It's a {Bleeping} Valuable Thing - the week so far

what a week....

Embarrassing

I started to read the complaint. It's juicy Romance Novel addictive. And horrifying. And embarrassing. And bleeping insane.

Hot

I have a big time crush on Patrick Fitzgerald. It started after the Scooter Libby trial when I saw him at the taping of Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me. And after his press conference Tuesday it grew even bigger. He's all kinds of hot when he's steaming mad and full of righteous indignation. And you know, making the world a better place.

Just Straight Up Creepy

Caught this on Dr. Phil yesterday. And all I could do was think, ick. That is NOT a baby. That is a doll. There's this thing called reborning. They are dolls that are made to look like real babies. A woman on the show has two nurseries, one for the girl dolls and one for the boy dolls. It's just creepy.

Twittering Too Much

Twitterific

Unemployment means a lot of time available to waste. And for me, I waste on it online and watching tv, usually simultaneously. I have become a news and blog junkie. And twitter is not helping. At all.

At first my tweets were from friends. One is a college friend who tweets every thought. No matter how mundane. All day long I read about how he can’t find a folder, has a meeting, is eating a cheese sandwich for lunch, found the folder, ate a dorito that fell on the floor, is on a conference call and ready to go home for dinner.

Then I progressed up to tweets from Obama, the Adler planetarium, Buzz feed, until I moved on to full on obsession with gawker.com, daily intel, chicago tribune, npr news, cnn, politico and other obsessive twittering.

News and gossip galore.

This morning, from four difference sources, I got a tweet on the 533,000 lost jobs.

What fun.

One can be TOO informed.

High Brow Flatulence

The best, the BEST thing about this article is that it is the #4 most emailed story on the nytimes.com website. (dailyintel)

SCIENCE / ENVIRONMENT | December 04, 2008 As More Eat Meat, a Bid to Cut Emissions By ELISABETH ROSENTHAL Farm emissions are being discussed during international talks on a new treaty to combat global warming.

Most Emailed 1. The 10 Best Books of 2008 2. College May Become Unaffordable for Most in U.S. 3. Episcopal Split as Conservatives Form New Group 4. As More Eat Meat, a Bid to Cut Emissions 5. Vermont Town Turns to College in Bid to Guide Change

Shaving Your Beard Gets You A Cabinet Nomination

Was it my imagination, or did the Chicago news anchors pretend to be surprised that Bill Richards got a nomination? On ABC they pointed out that he had been his competitor at one time. Did they forget that he endorsed him too? Wasn't it a forgone conclusion that he'd be somewhere in the Obama Administration?

Am I missing something? Is there a reason this nomination wasn't part of the Economic Team?

And I'm really curious why now the nominees get to speak? When the Economic Team was announced they stood behind our Prophet President Elect and nodded and looked pleased with themselves and smiled. Or am I remembering the press conference wrong? (seriously asking, I'm not being rhetorical) If I am remembering this correctly, is it that the number crunchers can't speak? Or I wondered if our future Secretary of State wanted to speak and so they set a new precedent.

side note: I thought it was kinda cool that he broke out into Spanish. Take that Pallin and all your "Real Americans"

And could you love Obama any more than when he goes off script and riffs? Calling himself a mutt, mocking Mrs. Reagan and her séances and then today bemoaning the loss of Richards beard. I mean, honestly, I LOVE him.

Mundane Monday Musings

A Tale of Two Press Conferences


I watched two press conferences today. The first was our current president. Huddled a bit to his side and behind him was Paulson, looking a bit like Lurch. At least that's what I first thought. His shoulders slightly curved, his eyes darting around, his mouth closed as he nodded his way through Bush's speech; Paulson looked tall, creepy and awkward. This is the man behind the wheel driving our economy. Bush looked squat, short, uncomfortable and ready to dash at any quick movements. But then I realized who they looked like. Smithers and Burns.

I tried to listen objectively to what Bush was saying, in particular because I bank at Citibank, so this current we're-not-calling-it-a-depression is getting really, really close to me now. (Not only am I unemployed but now I REALLY have to worry about my pitiful amount of money being FDIC insured). But I was distracted by the clumsy image they made right up to the painfully clunky exit. Bush finished speaking and they split in two, Bush darting in one direction and Paulson's lankly arms and legs slinking off in another, like an ungracefully choreographed high school dance performance. I was left thinking Bush just wants to get the hell out of Washington.

The next press conference was Obama announcing his latest nominations. He is smooth. Always. In his defense, he is new, a fresh face in charge of bringing us hope and change. He is unsharpened pencils, new notebooks and straight A's on the first day of school. He hasn't had a chance to mess up yet. Which I'm sure he will. Regardless of his water walking and prophetic oratory skills, he is human. But I am really excited to see what he will do.

Don't mess with these kids today

Young carjacking heroine shines on TV

BY KATHLEEN McGRORY

The Allapattah girl who swatted a carjacker with a schoolbook and saved her little brother can now add another line to her résumé: TV star

Six-year-old Briana Castillo and her mother, Atheysha Diaz, were featured Tuesday afternoon on the nationally syndicated daytime talk show, The Ellen DeGeneres Show. At the end of the show, DeGeneres surprised the family with a new car.

''I can't believe it,'' said Briana, twirling around her family's new wheels on national television.

Briana made headlines last month when a carjacker tried to swipe the family's old car, which was running in the driveway. Diaz had just locked the house and was walking to the vehicle. Briana and her 2-year-old brother, Jose, were already in the back seat.

When the stranger appeared, he shoved Diaz out of the way and took the wheel. She tried to fight back, but the man put the car in reverse and sped away.

That's when Briana stepped in. She flailed away at the carjacker's back with her fists and her schoolbook until he had enough. He stopped the car and ordered the kids out. Briana helped her brother out of his safety seat and walked him home.

When the story ran in The Miami Herald, the producers at The Ellen DeGeneres Show took note. About two weeks later, they flew Briana and her mother out to Los Angeles to be guests on the show.

On national television, DeGeneres honored Briana for her courage.

''That was really brave of you to hit him over the head,'' DeGeneres told her. ``That was smart thinking.''

Briana just giggled.

''She was giving him attitude,'' her mother chimed in.

Near the end of the segment, DeGeneres surprised Briana with a stash of toys and a new copy of Sarah's Unicorn, the library book she used to whack the carjacker.

The talk show host saved the big surprise for last: a shiny, white Chrysler Sebring adorned with an oversized red bow. There were already two safety seats installed in the back -- one for Briana, one for her little brother.

''Look, there's even a place for your book,'' DeGeneres said, drawing laughs from the audience.

Briana and Diaz returned to Miami Tuesday, where the case remains unsolved.

Although investigators found the family's old car just a few blocks from their home, the suspect is still at large.