{"id":6838,"date":"2018-01-23T10:00:10","date_gmt":"2018-01-23T15:00:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.progressivefox.com\/?p=6838"},"modified":"2018-08-16T15:49:09","modified_gmt":"2018-08-16T20:49:09","slug":"why-this-veteran-is-supporting-traci-ellis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.progressivefox.com\/?p=6838","title":{"rendered":"Why this veteran is supporting Traci Ellis"},"content":{"rendered":"

* Initially posted on the Progressives of Kane County Facebook page<\/em><\/p>\n

When I enlisted in the US Navy in August of 1995 I took an oath to uphold and defend the Constitution of the United States of America.\u00a0 I did not swear an oath to pledge to a flag or stand during the national anthem.\u00a0 My pledge was to uphold a legal document that this nation\u2019s democracy was founded on by a group of idealists who wanted a more equal form of government.\u00a0 \"Traci<\/a><\/p>\n

The flag debate was recently re-visited when\u00a0U-46 (Elgin, IL) School Board\u00a0member, Traci Ellis made a controversial statement abou the flag<\/a>.\u00a0 But that is not the purpose of this blog.<\/p>\n

I am hoping the readers of this short essay ask themselves an important question \u2013 \u201cwhy do I say the pledge or why don\u2019t I say the pledge?\u201d\u00a0 Plato said that the unexamined life is not worth living.\u00a0 So, if you are a flag pledger and anthem stander, \u201cwhy?\u201d\u00a0 If you sit, kneel and refuse to repeat with the rest of the herd, \u201cwhy?\u201d \u00a0Do you say the pledge because you were conditioned to in grade school, middle school and high school?\u00a0 Or have you put deep thought into every word and think, \u201cyes, this is the pledge for me.\u201d\u00a0 Maybe you have a grandfather who served in WWII and you think of him when you pledge.\u00a0 Yes, I want you to do something other than just read this blog.\u00a0 Please ask yourself why you pledge or don\u2019t pledge.\u00a0 This Sunday while you are watching a game, are you standing in your living room with your hand over heart during the national anthem?\u00a0 Or are you raiding the fridge one last time because you don\u2019t want to miss the game or the commercials?<\/p>\n

Why did Traci Ellis choose the words that she did to describe the flag?\u00a0 Has anyone asked her?\u00a0 I know Traci personally and I know that she lost a family member to police brutality, an unwarranted shooting.\u00a0 How can she feel anything but rage?\u00a0 Do you know what it is like to be pulled over and harassed by police simply because you have a different skin color?\u00a0 Think of your family.\u00a0 If one of your family members had lost his or her life because of a racially-motivated shooting, would you be outraged?<\/p>\n

I remember working at the Yorkville Amoco shortly after high school.\u00a0 It was the early 90\u2019s before cell phones, when the cool kids carried pagers.\u00a0 One cold night when I was working a second shift, two young black men entered the gas station, freezing.\u00a0 Apparently the young men had been detained by the Kendall County Sheriff.\u00a0 They were picked up in Oswego and taken into custody in Yorkville.\u00a0 The police found nothing after a search and couldn\u2019t charge them with any wrong-doing.\u00a0 The boys were stranded 7 miles away from their vehicle in subzero temperatures. \u00a0The police wouldn\u2019t take them back to their car. I told the young men that I would give them a ride at the end of my shift.\u00a0 The Kendall police officers all filled their vehicles up at this gas station. \u00a0Of course they noticed the young men waiting for their ride. \u00a0When the officers heard what I was going to do, they all told me I was making a mistake because these young men were drug dealers.\u00a0 Really?\u00a0 Then why didn\u2019t you charge them?\u00a0 I pushed back and asked them why they hadn\u2019t been taken into custody.\u00a0 One eventually explained it to me, \u201cJohn, the good people of Kendall County don\u2019t want to see their property values take a hit.\u00a0 We keep the riff raff out.\u00a0 We\u2019re just doing our job.\u201d\u00a0 Really?\u00a0 So they were going to make them walk 7 miles in freezing temperatures along snowy roads without sidewalks because they were afraid that these young men might be moving to Kendall County?\u00a0 If this had happened to anyone reading this blog, would you be outraged?<\/p>\n

Another response that black people in my life have expressed is fear. \u00a0Last year shortly after the murder of Philando Castile, I remember my roommate (he is black) telling me how he was no longer going out on the weekends because he didn\u2019t want any trouble.\u00a0 He no longer wanted to take the risk and was going to limit his travel to the daily trip to and from work.\u00a0 It reminded me of living in West Africa during a coup\u00a0attempt and the periodic military-enforced curfews.\u00a0 How is it that in the United States of America 13% of the population has to consider that a routine traffic stop might get lethal?<\/p>\n

The thing that impressed me about Traci Ellis is that she was not afraid and her outrage turned to courage.\u00a0 After making her toilet paper comment, she started receiving death threats. She took them seriously and faced that possibility.\u00a0 We traded text messages the night of her board meeting and I offered my support.\u00a0 I had my own board meeting in Aurora so I was not able to attend the Elgin meeting.\u00a0 I knew she was facing a large audience and people calling for her resignation.\u00a0 It was clear that the death threats had taken their toll and that she was taking them seriously, but pushing forward courageously.\u00a0 She understood that if she didn\u2019t attend the board meeting that the white supremacists\u2019 grip of fear would grow stronger.\u00a0 Our short text exchange was raw, real and very powerful.\u00a0 Few people have impressed me with the level of courage that Traci demonstrated that night.<\/p>\n

Change only happens at the edge of controversy.\u00a0 Complacency and acceptance of injustice are the enemies of justice.\u00a0 We need more people in public office like Traci Ellis who are willing to tell it like it is, challenge the status quo and not back down from what they believe.<\/p>\n

My friend, Mary Shesgreen,\u00a0attended the Elgin School Board meeting to speak up and support Traci.\u00a0 She sent a report to the Fox Valley Citizens for Peace and Justice.\u00a0 The majority of public comments supported Traci\u2019s right to free speech and highlighted her tireless public service.\u00a0 During the pledge Traci remained silent and some of her supporters in the audience took a knee.<\/p>\n

As a veteran, I support Colin Kaepernick and fellow revolutionary, Traci Ellis in their bold words and actions \u2013 free speech.\u00a0 I also deeply admire their courage to challenge the status quo.<\/p>\n

The six other board members who serve with me in East Aurora know that I also do not say the pledge of allegiance.\u00a0 I was elected to the East Aurora School Board in 2015.\u00a0 For the first few meetings I went along with the crowd, not really thinking about my actions.\u00a0 Then, I started to watch the tragic details of the LaQuan McDonald murder unfold.\u00a0 Rahm Emanuel had the video of the young man\u2019s murder hidden until he had won re-election in April of 2015.\u00a0 Do readers remember that video of Chicago Police officers pumping 16 bullets into the teenager’s lifeless and unarmed body?\u00a0 I remember standing in the board room and saying the words, \u201cwith liberty and justice for all\u201d and thinking, \u201creally?\u201d\u00a0 Do we live in a just world when a wealthy hedge fund manager like Rahm Emanuel can cover up the cold-blooded murder of a young black man simply to get re-elected and use the office to benefit his wealthy friends like the Pritzker family?\u00a0 Is that justice for all?<\/p>\n

I went home and did some research on the history of the pledge of allegiance.\u00a0 Did you know that we started saying it in schools across America because a nationalist and author who worked for a youth magazine, Francis Bellamy, wrote the pledge at the direction of the magazine\u2019s owner, Daniel Sharp Ford.\u00a0 It should not surprise you that Ford\u2019s popular family magazine, Youth Companion<\/em>, also sold flags. Other historical accounts say that flags were given away free with a subscription to the magazine.<\/p>\n

Outside of the flag-selling profit motivations for the magazine, the author felt that the pledge would help unite the nation after the Civil War and would be a good way to properly indoctrinate immigrants to America.\u00a0 An excerpt from the September 2015 copy of the Smithsonian Magazine captures some of Bellamy\u2019s other writings<\/a> about the flag pledge.<\/p>\n

As a writer and publicist at the\u00a0Companion, he let \u2019em rip. In a series of speeches and editorials that were equal parts marketing, political theory and racism, he argued that Gilded Age capitalism, along with \u201cevery alien immigrant of inferior race,\u201d eroded traditional values, and that pledging allegiance would ensure \u201cthat the distinctive principles of true Americanism will not perish as long as free, public education endures.\u201d <\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In 1923-24 a movement to add the words, \u201cthe Flag of the United States of America\u201d to the pledge as a way to clarify to immigrants which country they were pledging allegiance to.<\/p>\n

The initial flag pledge in 1892 included a Hitler-style, right hand extended towards the flag salute.\u00a0 As Hitler rose to power and people did not want to be misidentified as Hitler sympathizers, the salute was replaced with the common hand-over heart motion by many schools across America during the 1930\u2019s.\u00a0 Some schools took to a military style salute \u2013 hand to forehead.\u00a0 Notably, many schools changed their pledge ritual before Congress made it official in 1942.<\/p>\n

In 1954, President Eisenhower spearheaded an effort to add the words, \u201cunder God,\u201d to the pledge of allegiance and it has not been changed since then.<\/p>\n

This is a short history of how the Pledge of Allegiance came into existence\u00a0<\/b>in schoolrooms across America, and the few small changes that have been made over the years.\u00a0 It doesn\u2019t surprise me that America\u2019s pledge is laced with nationalism, indoctrination and capitalism.<\/p>\n

I wish that schools would put students through the pace of questioning and developing their own belief systems instead of teaching unquestioned, propagandistic nationalism.<\/p>\n

It must take an enormous amount of courage for Colin Kaepernick and Traci Ellis to take bold career-altering moves that challenge a nationalistic ritual that we have been indoctrinated into since early childhood.\u00a0 They both remain American heroes in my book and, we need to remain focused on the \u201cwhy\u201d that inspired them – racial injustice is still prevalent in America.\u00a0 In my opinion, it is immoral to stand by and do nothing.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

* Initially posted on the Progressives of Kane County Facebook page When I enlisted in the US Navy in August of 1995 I took an oath to uphold and defend the Constitution of the United States of America.\u00a0 I did not swear an oath to pledge to a flag or stand during the national anthem.\u00a0 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[78],"tags":[2938,2939,41,2936,2937],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.progressivefox.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6838"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.progressivefox.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.progressivefox.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.progressivefox.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.progressivefox.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6838"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"http:\/\/www.progressivefox.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6838\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6851,"href":"http:\/\/www.progressivefox.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6838\/revisions\/6851"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.progressivefox.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6838"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.progressivefox.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6838"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.progressivefox.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6838"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}