Arkansas Blog

I vote that West Fork schedule a special school assembly to air the Mick Foley discussion of constitutional law.

We saw that this morning. Had to wake Will up way earlier than usual to watch it. He was speechless. And impressed that Jon Stewart knows his name. But yes, the idea of professional wrestlers following him around will help with the bullys i think. Thank you David Koon. Like I said, add cheese fries to the offer!
Laura Phillips
Mom O' Will
nursenimue@yahoo.com

Professional wresters--an obvious intellectual equal of supporters of this nonsense.

By the way Mrs. Phillips--have the reality show people called? The Dugger's show is on the wane and Balloon-boy's dad is going to jail--surely there's room on the airwaves for the Octomom and the show you are clearly angling for.

FTP-wad,

If the wrestling humor helped get Will a little break from the West Fork culture, great. The school obviously is incapable of dealing with the situation. You are truly a wad for questioning Mom's motives in this situation and for comparing those motives to the other cases you mention.

Laura, kudos to you and your family for raising such a thoughtful and principled kid!

Wouldn't the thought of having professional wrestler backup help lots of 10 year olds get through the day? Now that I think about it, it might help me.

No, I simply call 'em as I seen 'em, Doc--just like you and the other armchair philosopher/critic/commentators on this site. These people filled this kid's head with mush, created a situation in which they could glean publicity, and are now milking it.

If/when the situation arises where a kid is punished for refusing to say the pledge on the grounds that he does not owe allegiance to a country that would elect a socialist president, I look forward to the liberals on the site lauding the child for his courage and lionizing him for his maturity and independence of thought.

FTP,

The pledge says nothing about allegiance to any president, socialist or otherwise. I would expect no child to say as much. The pledge does mandate allegiance to a flag, symbolic of a republic that secures liberty and justice for all. Young Master Phillips has simply determined that such particular description does not, at the moment, seem applicable to our country. You may disagree.

I wonder, what would be this show concept you speak of? Perhaps one episode of Mr. Phillips making up his mind, followed by several weeks of footage from the school and community of people following him around, harassing him and calling him a "gay-wad?"

What you see as a PR opportunity for the parents, I see as a precocious young man who has found a crack in the foundation of our pledge. Children are quiet capable of coming to their own conclusions, right or wrong.

"The pledge says nothing about allegiance to any president, socialist or otherwise." And I didn't say it did. I said, "If/when the situation arises where a kid is punished for refusing to say the pledge on the grounds that he does not owe allegiance to a country that would elect a socialist president . . . ." The pledge, you may recall, is to the flag "and to the republic for which it stands . . . ."

It appears you may need to bone up on your reading comprehension as part of your studies.

As for your other comments, Arkansas Student, I am not sure what show Mrs. Phillips wants. Perhaps she and the mother of the tasered Ozark girl could appear on Wife-Swap. I would definitely tune in for that one--to see Taser Mom explain to Will the dangers of civil disobedience, coupled with Mrs. Phillips and Taser-girl, both refusing to shower, staging a "stink-in" at the local school.

Young Will is certainly "precocious"--if one of my children had been so precocious as to tell a teacher, sub or otherwise, to "jump off a bridge," they would spend the following Saturday raking leaves at said teacher's house, not appearing on CNN et al.

Oh Pines, you're so amusing. Contemplating your whine about a 'professional wrestler' and imagining you genuflecting to the star of Bedtime for Bonzo is truly a contradiction to amuse.

You're right, I didn't correctly interpret what you said.

But I fail to understand how a child refusing to say the pledge b/c he/she is not happy w/ the results of a freely conducted election is equivalent to a child refusing to say the pledge b/c he/she recognizes that the words of the pledge itself do not reflect the realities of who has access to "liberty and justice."

And, just maybe, Mr. Phillips, through his own dissent, has paved the way for the future child who would refuse on the grounds you suggest.

"if one of my children had been so precocious as to tell a teacher, sub or otherwise, to 'jump off a bridge,' they would spend the following Saturday raking leaves at said teacher's house, not appearing on CNN et al."

You mean, unless they told the teacher to jump off a bridge b/c they were being threatened w/ punishment for refusing to pledge allegiance to a country that would elect a socialist president?

Pines.......sometimes I'm just simply amazed at the crap you post on this blog. That said, I've spent the last 10 minutes trying to think of something to say to you that doesnt stoop down to your level, but so far no luck. I suppose that says alot about my bad mood this morning, huh.

Pines, you are a bitter old man full of rage because the world doesn't see things thru your eyes and so you take that anger out on innocent victims like a precocious 10year old and his parents who encourage him to think for himself. Something I'm sure was never encouraged in your house, huh?

Please take your sick humor to a conservative blog where it can be appreciated.

Well said Charles Eddie Smith. I did the same thing -- typed up several responses, and erased them all because I felt so childish stooping to FTP's level.

FTP seems to be very threatened by children that think for themselves. As much as it pains me to read his hateful posts, at least I have plenty of things to use as examples of the wingnut mind at work when educating my kids. An enlightened and curious young mind can tell that there's something very off about FTP, wordonthestreet, strangelove, and LARGEASS. All of their posts are artifacts of a dying breed. America is moving on, and Will Phillip's is a perfect example of it.

"Pines, you are a bitter old man full of rage because the world doesn't see things thru your eyes and so you take that anger out on innocent victims like a precocious 10year old and his parents who encourage him to think for himself."

I do not think that we have established if the kid was thinking for himself or following what his mother said. Sure, the kid can take the credit, but we haven't proved that the mother didn't tell him to do it. Her postings on here certianly lead one to believe that she is capiable of influencing her son for a stunt like this.

"Pines, you are a bitter old man full of rage because the world doesn't see things thru your eyes and so you take that anger out on innocent victims like a precocious 10year old and his parents who encourage him to think for himself. Something I'm sure was never encouraged in your house, huh?"

CES- Do we have to see the world through your eyes then? Isn't the gang member or the welfare crack mother a free thinker also? The westside shooters were free thinking when they pulled the trigger. All of those decisions for that lifestyle are free thinking. I haven't found the parent yet that decided for their child to be one of the above. Freedom of thought is a good thing, but when it is just a child conveying his mother's thoughts, it's not free thinking it's just the delivery of a adult's opinion in a better looking package.

Let me guess CES, you were on the everyone should own a home and "God praise Clinton" for the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act? They were both free thinking ideas that cost this country billions.

Has been Wrestlers and the Daily show, is this Kid's agent the same one as Huckabee's? A contact with a Speakers Bureau told me that the Phillips family is looking for a agent. Looks like ole Ma will get the bucks she wants, that might be Cuba pesos, but at least she's in the Kate8 club now.

Word.........you're as full of it this morning as Pines......thanks for the laughs. Can't stay and chat, off to work.

1. The kid made the Colbert Report also. So, that's kinda big, I think.

2. I don't think any kid can be forced to say the pledge, deomocratically-elected socialist president or not. Republican president...maybe.

3. Don't try to tell me that any of us, if our 15 minutes came up, wouldn't take it and run with it.

If Will's parent filled his little brain with ideas of freedom and justice for all.....good for them! Kudos to parents who instill an intelligent thought in their kid's head, we need more like em.

Our 2 kids are free thinkers not because we've lectured them all their lives but because they've watch how we live our lives. We may not have much, but we can sleep peacefully at night knowing we've set no bad examples for our kids. Never have they watched us be mean to another human. Never have they caught us setting ourselves up to be better than the guy next door. We have taught our kids that the world doesn't belong to us and doesn't have to match our "lifestyle", whatever that is. We've taught them that we're all in this together and they can't be comfortable if another human is suffering.

Our youngest daughter noticed on her own the bad treatment of gay students at her high school. She joined with a gay kid to start the Gay-Straight Alliance at her school. She learned first hand how upsetting this concept was to the adults, but she stood her ground and the club was formed merely in an effort to teach understanding of others to kids who already thought if you weren't just like them, you weren't snot. I can't say her efforts were a raging success, but I am proud of her for going out on a limb to help kids who were also being called Gaywads to their face.

I nearly died laughing when in the middle of this she asked me how gay students were treated when I was at the same school 35 years ago. My god.....what a concept! According to the dictates of the day, there were NO gay students at Northside High School....oh hell no! But it's amazing how many of my classmates suddenly turned gay over the years since. I can't imagine how hard it must have been to cover up their true selves for so long. But that's the way it was back then.

It will be a better world when the old dinosaurs like chasv and FTPs die off. It's none of my business what other people do in their private lives. It's not any of my business what someone else chooses to do about pledging allegiance to the flag or burning it if they find that a worthy means of protesting something. History has shown the horrors of a nation goose-stepping in sync, I want no part of it.

It's kids like Will Phillips who will lead us to a better day. The Phillips family has accomplished more than the FK'ing Duggars, and I mean that nicely. A reality show about teaching a kid real values and intelligence would be a better thing than just a show about out of control reproduction. If any of the Duggar's kids are free thinkers, I might wind up thanking Jim Bob and Michelle one of these days. But I'm not holding my breath.

From The Pines- You do not pass the smell test.

The good thing about this is that Will wants to be an attorney. ACLU make room, better yet, make scholarships.

Note to self: buy Arkansas Lottery ticket today in hopes of helping Will in a few years.

I hate having to go to work and leave in the middle of a flame war. I've perused the comments since I left, including the ones calling me a bitter old man. That's rich. I've seen some pretty sick attempts at humor by liberals on this site over the years--particularly when certain conservative targets come into view. More than that, I read posts by liberals here wishing death and other misfortunes on targets of their wrath.

Liberals profess to hate hypocrisy. But the height of hypocrisy is hyprocrisy by the purported hyprocrisy-exposers. I've never seen anything posted by any conservative here approach the invective by many of you. You need to grow up.

And I still think it's hilarious that you are lauding this kid like he's Gandhi because his mom has filled his head with liberal propaganda and he talked back to a teacher. I'm not sure whether it is so sad it's funny, or so funny it's sad.

By the way, oh Guardians of the Constitution--do let me know how your planned dog-crap assault on Dr. and Mrs. Davis' home (site of the Tim Griffin fundraiser) this Monday turns out. (snort) Will Phillips at least has the defense that he is acting childish because he is still a child.

FTP, this story seems to have really, really gotten under your skin. Any particular reason? Don't like kids who have shown more backbone than you could muster in such a situation? Mad at the world? Still grieving that Obama is president? Sore that W left us in such a mess? What?

Maybe you missed a post by his mother yesterday (snip from it here) on a previous thread:

"You need not agree with Will. Aside from his views on equality I differ strongly with him. I view the Pledge as an expression of Civic Pride and an expression of what our nation strives to be. However I commend Will for taking the pledge seriously & standing by HIS beliefs."

Sure doesn't sound like a mother forcing or influencing her son to do anything. As a veteran (you ever serve?) I salute Will and his parents for doing a good job of raising a bright young boy during tough times.

FromThePines,

The first time I took a stand on something like that I was eleven and in sixth grade. My parents had nothing to do with it.

By the way, did you know the pledge of allegiance was written by a socialist? True fact. And you know the thing that ticks me off second worst about adding "under God"? It breaks up "one nation, indivisible".

"Don't like kids who have shown more backbone than you could muster in such a situation? Mad at the world? "

So are you all going to laud Will when he's a teenager, gets pissed at a teacher, and beats the crap out of that person? Everything snowballs.

wordonthestreet,

"Go jump in a lake" is a pretty mild thing to say to a teacher who, under color of classroom discipline, repeatedly attempts to violate a student's well-known constitutional right not to say the Pledge of Allegiance. I don't think Will Phillips is in imminent danger of becoming a violent thug. Very few of those of us who defied illegitimate authority as students went on to beat up teachers. I didn't, and I don't know anyone else who did.

If you'll look into the history of the Pledge and the two Supreme Court cases in which this right was made explicit, you'll see it was the people who refused to say the Pledge who suffered the attentions of violent mobs.