Irish Sergeant,

Please allow me to rant along with you. If I am asked politely, I am very easy to get along with. As soon as I am ordered to do things, my first response tends to be along the lines of "And who the fu#k are YOU?" That has got me in trouble since I was in grade 2. I am now 56 years old and I still feel the same way. They tried to beat it out of me and it didn't work. I had three teachers over the years who realized all they had to do was ask politely. I have had some excellent principals too. They always asked and they usually got. The ones who told me that I would do also got. But the two different types of principals didn't 'got' the same thing. This "Thou shalt" crap is too heavy handed. Rant over.

PS I do not at all mind facing the flag of my country, and I would not think of staying seated while the national anthem is played. But when I am ordered to do it, I tend to do it only in my mind and look at the flag from the corner of my eye. I guess it's in the way a thing is said. Rant over again.