Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson for September 10, 2014

The gummint censors have been here already? I gotta get up earlier,

You’re going to have a LLLoooooooooonnnnnnnnngggggggg school year, Calvin! ;)

I’m surprised they kept the words and the flag the same in the Spanish version, since they may not have a pledge of allegiance, and the flag looks nothing like theirs.

I’m with Calvin on this one.

Calvin is off to a spanking start to the school year!

Take “hardt”, Callie. in the real world,at least , Christmas is only a few months away !

… when an ever growing global community will rejoice in Christ Jesus …

I don’t understand why would Mrs. Wormwood send Calvin to the principal’s office for asking questions. Is Mrs. Wormwood not capable enough to explain the gravity (or the lack of it) of the situation to Calvin? Poor Calvin is nervous at the thought of visiting principal’s office for no fault of his.

Ocean 815!

Calvin is off to the principal’s office for his hysteria, not his refusal. Had he said ‘no thank you’ to Ms Wormwood, she would have said ok, and there would be no comic strip today. This is not a challenge to anyone’s religious freedom, its just about Calvin :)

In the first three panels, Calvin is standing by his principles. In the fourth panel, Calvin is standing by his principal.

Click here: Peanuts (September 11, 1963)Here is a rare case where Charles Schulz repeated himself, drawing the following strip 24 years later:Click here: Peanuts (September 16, 1987)

8:15? Here in SW Florida I see kids waiting for the bus as late as 9:00.

“kids can take turns reciting any prayer in any religion of their choosing.”

We already have this for religions other than Christianity. Smarter True Believers are regretting their great grandparents started the whole government school thing in the early 20th century in an effort to indoctrinate Catholic immigrants.

I would have no problem with this…multicultural experience is a good thing.

This is a pledge and, in fact, a pledge of allegiance – don’t ask me where I got that idea – it is not a prayer. It has to do with patriotism and nationalism and pride and respect for the country that has given YOU so much. You are affirming your loyalty and regard for those who came before you to create the Republic the flag symbolizes. The flag is a symbol of that which is real, and the pledge is symbolic of your faith and loyalty to your form of government. Many of the comments are surprising to me. But then I know that many of my fellow citizens do not have a firm grasp of reality and history. You should thank your lucky fifty stars.

“Welcome back, welcome back, welcome baaaaack…”

When I started school, I argued with the teacher about that phrase “under God”, insisting that it wasn’t part of the pledge . . . because I remembered reading the pledge in the front of my father’s old Boy Scout manual, which pre-dated the 1954 addition of the phrase to the purely secular, purely nationalistic oath of allegiance. Somehow “instilling common tradition” is seen as different from “establishing a religion” or even “cult activities”, though objectively they all seem eerily similar.

I was going to school when Pres Eisenhower added ‘under god’. One day it wasn’t there – the next time we recited it – it was. Weird feeling.

And in Canada, they just keep lobbying to change the words of our national anthem.

“Non-Americans find the veneration of the flag a weird concept anyway.”

As an Ex-Pat Brit….its is a little creepy. I’m guessing that WW1 and WW2 (which affected the UK far more than they did the US) made jingoism rather tasteless. The US has not seen total war in the way europe has and so has yet to learn the dangers of encouraging this sort of nationalism.

So mote it be! lol

The Pledge of Allegiance was written by a Socialist.

I find it a bit amusing when Conservatives complain so loudly if they think a school is not forcing kids to say the Pledge of Allegiance every morning! People can embarrass themselves so easily by not knowing history or by thinking they know what they’re talking about when they really don’t.

This kid is 6? LOL

Calvin: future ACLU lawyer, getting an early start.

“Swiftly these pulled down the walls that their fathers had made them –The impregnable ramparts of old, they razed and relaid themAs playgrounds of pleasure and leisure, with limitless entries, And havens of rest for the wastrels where once walked the sentries;And because there was need of more pay for the shouters and marchers,They disbanded in face of their foemen their yeomen and archers.They replied to their well-wishers’ fears – to their enemies laughter,Saying: “Peace! We have fashioned a God Which shall save us hereafter.We ascribe all dominion to man in his factions conferring,And have given to numbers the Name of the Wisdom unerring.”

Calvin starts off the new school year where he ended the old one.

As Paul Simon sang, “As I pledged allegiance to the wall”

@hippogriff

I like that Constitutional pledge.

You’re doing well, Calvin. Must be some sort of record.

xxx

Such a calm and considered response.

Anyone else notice that the Principal is Mr Magoo?

That’s a lot of belly aching to do, just because you forgot the words over the summer break :~)

I like the Pledge of Allegiance:.I Pledge Allegiance to the flagof the United States of Americaand to the Republicfor which it stands,one Nation under God,indivisible,with liberty and justice for all..Its only 31 words; why do so many folks get into such a tizzy over it? If you don’t like, there are two options:1) Don’t speak itor2) Leave the country… now please!

I did get sent to the principals office for refusing to lead prayers, then when pressured, I addressed my prayer to Zeus. This was a public school in the 60s.

When Steven Engel, a Jewish New Yorker, came together with other parents in 1958 to sue New York State over state-endorsed prayer that was being recited in schools. The Supreme Court inevitably sided with Engel and the decision was issued on June 25, 1962 — a day that lives in infamy in the minds of many religious individuals and free-speech advocates.

The invocation in question was one that had been approved by the New York State Board of Regents. The prayer, which read, “Almighty God, we acknowledge our dependence upon Thee, and we beg Thy blessings upon us, our parents, our teachers and our Country,” was relatively benign in nature. Still, the parents were adamant that it shouldn’t be uttered in the public sphere.I was in Summer Vacation from Kindergarten June ’62, and it seems the general moral ethics of American society has been slipping, ever since..

Off to a good start, Calvin….

Calvin and his pet tiger Hobbes are at school with Mrs. Wormfood.

I enjoy the discourse this comics forum provides! So many thoughts and points of view…

MysteryCat: I’m glad you liked it, because it has since been censored and removed!

I’m not a US citizen (Australian) and I will gladly join in with the Pledge. I’m merely a guest here (albeit almost 30 years, legally of course), but I have no issue with this, the anthem, the flag, anything that represents this country. I don’t understand the mentality of people born here who have issue with this.

“Pfffffttttt!”

Calm down.