Tornado Alley (PROG)

[arizona1]

Arizona: Take a Loyalty Oath to God, or no Diploma

Sometimes, the news is so insane that it just is.. well, insane. No other word even fits.

In order to graduate from High School, the proposal goes, Seniors must recount this simple oath:

I, ___, do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic, that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge these duties; So help me God.

The bill, Arizona House bill #HB2467 ranks up there with one of those moments where you realize exactly how important the statehouse truly is.

By forcing students to make a pledge to God (a fact that of course all atheists will not do, and several faiths do not find valid) we're basically setting a litmus test.. it would be easy to avoid f you could also take on out the "bear true faith" portion.

Others take this dead to task:

First, graduating high school is not the same thing as voluntarily accepting the responsibility of a public office or admission to the legal bar. A high school diploma is, with extremely few exceptions, required to have a chance to live above the poverty level. It is the culmination of an education that up until that point was compulsory. That makes the “that I take this obligation freely” line of the oath dishonest at best. Saying that the school district will deny granting a diploma to a student who has completed all of the requirements for that diploma unless they swear an oath is both somewhat extortionary and antithetical to an oath freely given.

http://www.kevinbondelli.com/...

I'm sure this has already been covered (though search not find it) but it's such outrageous insanity that it deserves to be mentioned repeatedly until the sheer concept of it hangs over those who proposed it like a black cloud.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/01/26/1182352/-Arizona-Take-a-Loyalty-Oath-to-God-or-no-Diploma