-Caveat Lector- >From http://www.twincities.com/mld/twincities/3309432.htm
}}}>Begin Posted on Tue, May. 21, 2002 Ventura compares requiring Pledge to Nazi, Taliban oaths BY Jim Ragsdale Pioneer Press Gov. Jesse Ventura�s rhetoric has heated to the boiling point again. In a radio interview Monday, the free-associating governor was discussing his opposition to a bill requiring students to recite the Pledge of Allegiance when he began comparing it to the indoctrination practiced by two notorious regimes, the Taliban and the Nazis. On Tuesday, a candidate for Ventura�s job, House Majority Leader Tim Pawlenty, R- Eagan, said Ventura stepped far over the line. �The comparison is just absurd and bizarre,�� said Pawlenty. �The Pledge relates to freedom and liberty � and he�s comparing it to the Taliban and the Nazis, which is the absurd other end of the spectrum.�� Ventura is expected to decide this week whether to sign or veto the bill. Backed by veterans� groups, partly in response to the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, the bill would require school districts to have students recite the pledge weekly. School boards could opt out of the requirement. Veterans provided visible support during public hearings and floor debates on the bill. Ventura, proud of his own military service as Navy frogman in the 1970s, has long signaled his concerns about requiring students to recite the pledge. In the interview on KFAN on Monday, he went several steps further. �Patriotism comes from the heart, not repetition in the mind.�� Ventura said. �I�ll equate it to how outraged all of us were when you see these films of these Taliban kids being asked to say over and over, you know how they rock back and forth, and then they expound their hatred for the United States, even though they don�t even know us? �And then if you look at Germany in World War II, what did they do there? They had those brown-shirted youth corps, and all that, that were asked to, you know, hail the Third Reich and all this stuff. �To me, patriotism again comes from � you volunteer patriotism. Patriotism comes from your heart, not asking government to say, we�re going to make our people patriotic by what we say.� He went on to recite his family�s military record � his parents volunteered and served in World War II, and he and his brother volunteered and served during the Vietnam War. �That�s patriotism, in my opinion, by action � not words,�� he said. Ventura has not said whether he will seek a second term in November. Pawlenty issued a statement on Monday calling Ventura�s remarks �appalling�� and �bizarre.�� �Apparently the governor thinks that acknowledging freedom and liberty in the pledge is the equivalent of the Taliban and the Nazis,�� Pawlenty said in an interview. �It�s not a matter of a difference in degree � they are so different, that anyone with half a brain could recognize that.�� Ventura spokesman John Wodele said, �This is exactly the reason that Governor Ventura criticizes campaigns that start before Memorial Day.�� Patriotism and politics have proved a volatile mixture for Ventura. In February, he came under criticism for suggesting that his solution to the state�s budget crisis was the most patriotic response to the attacks of Sept. 11. Jim Ragsdale can be contacted at [EMAIL PROTECTED] or (651) 228-5529. � 2001 twincities and wire service sources. 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