DURHAM – The NFL season may be over, but that doesn’t mean kneeling during the Pledge of Allegiance is any less en vogue, apparently. The Durham City Council invited Cub Scout Pack 451 to lead the pledge at a meeting this week, and on of those scouts, a 10 year old, took a knee.
Lest you think the young boy was merely imitating athletes he’d seen on television, it was actually the boy’s father that encouraged him to do it.
From CBS17 in Durham:
“What I did was took a knee against racial discrimination, which is basically when people are mean to other people of different colors,” said [the boy].
His dad […] said he talked to [his son] about it beforehand, but he wasn’t sure if he’d follow through.
“When he did it I was really surprised and also really proud of him,” [the father] said. He later tweeted about his son’s actions, saying, “[my son] took a knee when his Boy Scout troop opened the City Council Meeting with the pledge of allegiance…”
The Durham mayor thanked the boy for ‘expressing his conscience,’ but how appropriate it, really, for a 10 year old scout to be making such a political statement? Not that a 10 year old cannot have political views (this author certainly had them at 10 years old), but based on the father’s comments this doesn’t seem like a spontaneous act by a young boy.
In blunt terms, the boy’s father totally exploited him, encouraging his son to kneel and likely expecting (desiring) the media attention that was bound to follow. Well, it worked – it is now trending story.
But not everyone is so enthused with what the father encouraged his boy to do, especially as a member of the Scouts.
“It just blew my mind that this was Cub Scouts and politics,” Brandon LaRoque said.
LaRoque is a life long scout and veteran. He said he heard about what took place and reached out to CBS 17.
“Part of the scout oath is to God and your country, and I understand people have the right to freedom of speech. I just don’t understand why it has to be during the Pledge of Allegiance,” LaRoque said.”
It has to be during the Pledge of Allegiance because that what gets the most attention, and attention is what the boy’s father wanted.
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