Thread: Tancredo Asks ACLU to Defend Politically-Targeted Student

http://tancredo.house.gov/press/presser ... tudent.htm

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: Will Adams

October 14, 2005
202.226.6997








Tancredo Asks ACLU to Defend Politically-Targeted Student

Illinois Student Disciplined for Refusing to Stand During Mexican National Anthem


WASHINGTON, D.C. – Congressman Tom Tancredo (R-CO) asked the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) to defend an embattled Illinois student who was targeted by his school’s administration for refusing to stand during a recitation of the Mexican National Anthem.



Robert Bedard’s son, a student at Larkin High School in Elgin, Chicago, refused to stand when the Mexican National Anthem was played at a cultural awareness program. Bedard, speaking for his son because he is a minor, complained that his son was being coerced into showing support for a foreign government, arguing, “I would be happy if they will not try to force students to honor patriotic elements of another culture unless they also honor our flag, our anthem as well.�



Tancredo wrote the ACLU’s President asking that she defend Bedard. The Congressman questioned why the so-called nonpartisan organization had not come to Bedard’s aid when it had recently argued that students not be forced to recite the American Pledge of Allegiance, and when the Mexican National Anthem invokes religious belief such as: “Oh fatherland/ Your forehead shall be girded with olive garlands,/ by the divine archangel of peace/ For in heaven your eternal destiny/ has been written by the hand of God.�



Tancredo’s letter is printed below:



Ms. Nadine Strossen

President

American Civil Liberties Union

125 Broad Street

18th Floor New York, NY 10004



Dear Ms. Strossen,



As you may know, a student in an Illinois public school was recently disciplined by school authorities for choosing to stay seated during the playing of the Mexican National Anthem. According to press reports, the student was concerned that paying homage to a foreign government by standing may have jeopardized his upcoming enlistment in the military.

The case has received some attention in the media, and I was wondering if your organization plans to take any action on behalf of this student, or any of the other students who may have felt coerced by the “officially sponsored� nature of the activity.



As recently as 2003, the Colorado chapter of the ACLU filed a lawsuit in federal district court challenging the constitutionality of school sponsored recitations of the Pledge of Allegiance. The ACLU’s state legal director at that time told the media, “Public expressions of belief in the ideals of liberty and justice should be voluntary, not coerced.� If the ACLU feels that asking students to recite the Pledge of Allegiance constitutes “coercion�, I would imagine you would be equally concerned when students are compelled to pay homage to a foreign nation.



Additionally, one verse of the Mexican Anthem starts with the following words:


For in heaven your eternal destiny, has been written by the hand of God.

The ACLU is well known for its ongoing effort to banish religious references from every corner of the American public square, and these lyrics are at least as religious as the Pledge. After reading the words, I was doubly surprised that your group has not already sprung into action to characterize the event as an unconstitutional “establishment of religion.�

I look forward to hearing from you on the ACLU’s plans as they apply to this case.

Thank you in advance for your time.

Sincerely,


Tom Tancredo
Member of Congress

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I'd read this a week or so ago. Has Mr. Tancredo received a response from ACLU yet?

I admire Tom for standing up for the student, but there is a bigger question here isn't there?

Is this a public school? I presume so.

Why is a Mexican National Anthem being played in our public schools?

Answer: Because the country and our schools are FLOODED with foreign agents of foreign governments.

GET THESE PEOPLE OUT OF OUR COUNTRY NOW!!!!

Is there absolutely NO END to this IDIOCY??

I'll bet the ACLU can hardly wait to help defend the student with this case.

There is a SERIOUS problem in this picture. A school in AMERICA where the AMERICAN STUDENTS CAN'T SING THE NATIONAL ANTHEM is having a CULTURAL AWARENESS week where they can sing OTHER COUNTRIES' NATIONAL ANTHEMS???? Am I MISSING something here??

This brings up an issue I just found out about this morning. My best friend, who retired from teaching in the Winston-Salem/Forsyth County, NC schools, told me this morning that she had talked with one of her co-workers who still teaches in her old school and get this. This teacher of Kindergarten and First Grade had TWENTY TWO students. ELEVEN of those speak NO ENGLISH. NONE. This teacher is at her wit's end. She is just completely freaked out. She said there is NO WAY UNDER THE SUN that she can teach this class. HALF of the class speaks NO ENGLISH. THIS is what is happening in our schools and, if something isn't done fast, there will be NO MORE teachers. Who, in their right mind, would choose teaching as a career in this day and age???

"Cultural Awareness Week"



Half the nation's students can read, write or do their math....but public education has time for "cultural awareness week".

I wonder if any time was devoted to American Culture.

I wonder, do we even have an American Culture any more?

ABSOLUTELY NOT! THAT was what I meant to add!!! My friend who taught in the school I was talking about was ALWAYS FURIOUS because they had multi-culture week, black history MONTH, Martin Luther King Day, etc., etc. but almost NONE of the children even knew who GEORGE WASHINGTON WAS. This is NO LIE. They had NO American Culture week. NO AMERICAN HISTORY week. Ultimately, this was one of the reasons she took an early retirement. It was just unbelievable and unbearable. I mean she had to do the pinata thing, dress up in MEXICAN clothes, the WORKS. But, the kids didn't study the Boston Tea Party. JUST INEXCUSABLE.

Didn't study the BOSTON TEA PARTY???

This is SEDITION!

ABSOLUTELY RIGHT. At the risk of sounding racist, they were not teaching our children ANYTHING about WHITE AMERICAN CULTURE. Now, it just seems to me that, if they are going to dedicate a week or maybe it was even a MONTH, to black history, the same amount of time should be allocated for White American history.

We are sitting back and allowing ourselves to be relegated to insignificance.

Bootsie said "we are just sitting back and allow ourselves to be relegated into insignificance".

Yessiree, Indeedy and OBLIIVION too!

Wake Up America!!