ON THE TOWN:The ignorance of the young

There was a time as a stupid teen that I did some stupid things. (I can just hear the chorus telling me I’m still doing them.) Perhaps doing stupid things as a teen is just part of growing up, but I don’t know. I recall a lot of teens in my day who did not do stupid things, and they seem to have turned out just fine.

It was the early ‘70s, and we were protesting. We were protesting a war that everyone but the military seemed to realize was a bad idea, we were protesting the fouling of our air and water, and we were protesting the inequality of women and minorities. As a teen, the war in Vietnam was raging. At age 16, I was cocky because I was a minor and still two years away from any remote possibility of being drafted. In other words, like a lot of male teens who do stupid things, I was fearless.

One of the stupid things I did several times was to stay seated while the national anthem was played at our high school basketball games. Or Dodgers games — it didn’t matter. The fact that I was not alone, that there were a number of other kids who also sat, is no consolation now.

In other forums at school, I rose for the Pledge of Allegiance, did not put my hand over my heart and did not say anything. I’m not sure why I sat for the anthem and stood for the pledge.

It seems now as though it may have been safer to sit among the larger numbers usually associated with the “Star Spangled Banner.” Some of my friends recited the pledge but took a detour around the words “under God” by simply not saying “under God” when it came around. That’s how we solved the “under God” issue without making a big deal about it.

Right or wrong, we were protesting. At the time, I had no thought other than rebelling. If you had told me that mayonnaise contributed to the death of sea lions, my friends and I would have marched on the federal building in Westwood.

Now, 35 or so years later, it seems so foolish. That old saying has greater meaning — the one that says if you are 19 and not a socialist you have no heart; and if you are 35 and still a socialist you have no brain. Or something like that. You get the idea.

It bothers me that some people are protesting the words “under God” when reciting the pledge of allegiance at Orange Coast College. It bothers me that one particular loudmouth, the same guy whom Costa Mesa Mayor Allan Mansoor rightly bounced out of a City Council meeting a few months ago, has been given a forum in which to state and to be quoted in a newspaper that the flag of the United States of America represents genocide.

It bothers me that people protest the words “under God” in the pledge but think it’s perfectly fine for others to walk around with four-letter words on their shirts. It bothers me that these same people think it’s OK to say some of these words on television or that they do not see that the soft porn that passes for “art” in some television shows is an indication that our culture is in a free fall.

As much as all that bothers me, it would bother me even more if these wayward souls lost their right to make their ridiculous statements or lose their right to avoid saying “under God” when it comes around in the Pledge of Allegiance.

And yes, it bothers me that brave men and women are fighting and dying in Iraq while these sad, sorry, self-centered people carry on, but protecting their right to protest is part of why we fight.

It’s not logic that one can grasp quickly, and I don’t claim that it is proper, but it is a fact.

I’m glad that the student leaders decided to restore the pledge. But even if they had not, their right to vote it down would have been a victory.

To those readers bothered by these juvenile protests by people with wrong priorities, all I can recommend is to have patience. At age 35, almost all of them will have brains. And the rest of them will be of no consequence.