the stentorian I ncssm
opinion
October 2006
7
With liberty and justice for all?
Is requiring time for recitation of the pledge
of allegiance an effective way of increasing
patriotism and student interest in government?
Yes
No
By Kathleen Boudreau
This is a step in the right direction. North
Carolina is now one of 36 other states that
require the Pledge to be recited daily. This
shouldn’t be such a big problem because
saying the pledge would take less than 30
seconds out of the day, which isn’t too much
to ask for, even from someone as busy as an
NCSSM student.
Where has this country’s patriotism gone,
when people are throwing a fit about spending
a few seconds a day in an act to honor our
country? How is this simple act of patriotism
hurting anyone who lives here? If a student
doesn’t wish to say the Pledge of Allegiance,
no one is going
to make them,
but* the daily
recitation gives
students who
wiili^to say the
Pledge a chance
to do so. More
importantly this
will unite
students
who may
have little else in common other than being
an American.
Most students today take for granted that
they live in the United States They don’t
regularly think about what it means to be an
American, let alone talk about it. This lack
of consciousness makes many Americans
apathetic toward government and civic
responsibility, which is evident from the low
percentage of Americans who decide to vote.
This new law will generate much needed
discussion about patriotism and will create
awareness of the many opportunities afforded
to Americans. Students need a reminder of the
rights and liberties that we as Americans are
lucky enough to have. Why are various people
so lazy and ungrateful as to make saying the
Pledge of Allegiance each day an extreme
hardship?
Are a few extra dollars and a few
seconds used up each day more important
than honoring a country that has given us
the chance for eveiyone to be educated, or
patriotism toward a country that allows each
person to worship fi^ly without fear of
persecution? No, patriotism and honor are
far more important. Without patriotism and
honor the U.S. stops being the country that
our founding fathers fought for. What will to
slop the U.S. from being overtaken by another
country if Americans don’t care? Without
patriotism and honor the U.S. is nothing.
By Elizabeth Cutrone
I’m not always proud to be an American—
we’re probably one of the greediest, most
wasteful countries in the world—but I do
appreciate the freedoms that set our nation
apart from most. As students of NCSSM,
most of us probably owe much of our success
thus far in life to the privilege of American
citizenship.
I just don’t think we should be obligated to
express our gratitude in the same way as anyone
else at a pre-determined time and place, and
that’s why 1 don’t like the idea of saying the
Pledge of Allegiance every day. I understand
that in the current state of the world, loyalty
is an important
issue in this
country, but
reciting the
Pledge is not
the way to go
about increasing
patriotism.
What do
the words in
the Pledge even
mean? Does
anyone actually listen to what they’re saying
when they’re gazing up at Old Glory with
their hands over their hearts? Of course they
don’t. When people say the Pledge, they go
into group mentality. Speaking in unison with
so many other people dulls the rational mind,
evoking and intensifying feelings of pride and
belonging. It’s one of the techniques Hitler
used to brainwash Germany.
The United States is, of course, not pre-
WWII Germany; it hasn’t suffered nearly the
same economic loss, and saying the Pledge
isn’t going to cause another World War. On
a smaller scale, though, it could have similar
effects. The positive emotional response to
the Pledge could lull America’s youth into a
decidedly un-American complacency. This
country was built on disagreement and the
idea that different opinions should be debated
until a compromise is reached. Historically,
Americans have never been satisfied with
the status quo. They have always strived to
improve the world and their own country. But
if everyone believes things are fine as they are
because saying the Pledge every day makes
them feel secure, there will be no dissent and
that could lead to stagnancy.
Saying the Pledge of Allegiance isn’t going
to put too much of a strain on the student
body. In the long run, though, it could ruin the
forward-thinking mind set that characterizes
American society.
Painting
over
history
By Mary Kohlmann
“The beautiful girl herself writes poems
in code,” the poem begins. “An invented
shorthand created by eliminating penstrokes
from each word...” Reading it in newsprint,
however, isn’t quite the same. I’d like to
show it to you in the mural form in which
I foimd it, with the words interspersed with
lines of zeroes and ones. Sadly, I no longer
can.
The Beall Stairwell, which is off-limits to
males, was one of the better-kept secrets of
the school, but alsoune of the most unique.
Until September of this year its walls,
doors, floor, even the ceiling—every surface
from the locked fourth floor door edging
down towards Second Beall was completely
coated in quotations, poems, lyrics and even
drawings. But one of the things that most
amazed me was that the dates left beside
the writers’ names went back to the school’s
very first graduating class.
The writings weren’t perfect, of course. A
handful of people wrote spiteful things about
one another and about the administration.
Yet these were vastly in the minority;
most pieces clearly made an attempt at
significance.
A slightly more valid criticism of the
work is made by the administration that
painted over it: that a few of the pieces were,
as both Residential Life Director Mike
Newbauer and Assistant Director Blakney
put it, “dark.”
“I think some of what was up there was
unhealthy,” Newbauer said. >
These concerns are understandable. I
realize that the delicate balance between
protecting students and allowing them
to express themselves is difficult for the
Residential Life Department to maintain.
Every staff member to whom I spoke
expressed sincere regret that many years of
tradition had been wiped away.
However, I feel that a greater effort
should have been made both to involve
students in the decision-making process
and to allow students to create their own
records before the painting wiped away the
real thing. Art teacher Joe Liles was asked
to photograph sections o'f the work, but the
sheer volume of pieces prevented him from
recording everything. What would it have
hurt to give students advance notice so that
we could have taken pictures of the words
that were most meaningful to us?
The overwhelming feeling among those
students to whom I spoke was one of shock
and anger that our tradition could be wiped
away without any discussion with us or
even a prior aimouncement. No, we do not
own the walls. But who other than students
can be said to inherit the messages earlier
classes sent down to us? Science and Math’s
status as a two-year institution leaves it with
a short memory and frail traditions. I saw the
Beall Stairwell as a rare form of student-to-
student, class-to-class communication, and I
felt nothing short of betrayed when it was
destroyed without regard for those to whom
it was precious and truly irreplaceable.
Photo courtesy of Joe Liles
Poetry appeared on every bit of free space
before the Beall Stairwell was painted.