The Pledge of Allegience

[Natasha]

At my high school, someone does the Pledge over the loud speaker every morning following the morning announcements. He says, "please stand for the Pledge" and then everyone in the school gets up and faces their classroom flag and says the Pledge along with him. In my class, though, there are a lot of kids who don't say the Pledge, talk right through it, or just kind of stand and stare.

Granted, it is early in the morning, so it's possible everyone is just too tired to remember all the words, but this has been bugging me lately, and I don't know why.

I get that saying the Pledge is a personal choice. One of my best friends declared herself an atheist in 4th grade and hasn't said "under God" since then, which is perfectly acceptable. I know a family from Canada that lives here, and only their kids who were born here say the Pledge. (The rest just stand silently while their classes or Girl Scout troops or whoever say it.)

Obviously no one can force you to say the Pledge. I guess it is your personal choice - but I really doubt that my entire first period class has some strong personal reason for not saying the Pledge of Allegience in the morning.

I think that part of the Pledge is about history - we say it because we have the freedom to say it, because of everything the country has gone through to get here. Is that too idealistic/naive?

Any opinions?
Not trying to offend anyone here, so sorry if I do.

[QuantumTuba]

Well, my school doesn't bother with the pledge.

Personally, I oppose it for a variety of reasons, the first of which is the historical revisionism inherent in its incorporation of "under God," which was executed as a result of Cold War hysteria. The second is that it elevates the nation itself above the concept for which our nation is meant to stand.

Permit me to elaborate upon that last part. The Pledge of Allegiance is about loyalty to a country. But a country is merely a piece of land no better than the rest of the world, a group of people no better than the rest of the world, and a government better than many but more flawed than quite a few others. Rather than pledging our allegiance to a nation, our allegiance should be to the values of liberty and human rights that transcend borders.

As Thomas Paine, one of our Founding Fathers, once said:

The world is my country; to do good is my religion.

All that being said, talking over the Pledge is quite rude, as it impedes the flow of patriotic speech in which many students may well wish to participate.

[Natasha]

That's really interesting - I've never really thought of it like that, but I do agree with you.
I could, though, argue it with the nationalist ideas that the US thrived (and still does I suppose) upon.

[Trebor]

Too bad not everyone believes in what you do.

If you can't do something as simple as being loyal to a nation, get the bleep out of here.

[QuantumTuba]

You're either trolling in this case or attempting to break the forum's record for stupidity.

If the latter, I suggest devolving your grammar. Other than that, superb job, sir.

[Whatsername]

You have stated exactly how I feel, but in far better words than I could have possibly come up with.

[capt. cockatiel]

That's why I don't say the Pledge of Allegience. We're part of the world, and if anything like world peace is ever going to happen, then that needs to be recognized.

[Leviathan]

bullshit, you don't say it because you're lazy.

[amtar]

We have to say the pledge once a week, but I think it has a lot of problems and lies. First of all, I hate the "under God" because obviously not everyone is a Christian! I can totally see how it would be offensive to people. And the whole "with liberty and justice for all" is not true. There are starving and homeless people out there who are not at all getting a fair treatment. I will refuse to speak it until it is amended to something more truthful.

[QuantumTuba]

I completely agree with you on the religious aspect. On the "with liberty and justice for all" part, I would say that such a portion was meant to show what the nation is supposed to be, although it clearly isn't. The problem is that the pledge is merely the tip of an iceberg of indoctrination, in which schoolchildren are told that this is a truly free country, causing people to ignore our government's persistent assault upon liberty and justice.

[Number8]

I pledge my alligence on the stipulation that the country is one of liberty and justice for all.

[Samantha]

Not only Christians believe in God...

Although nevertheless there *are* people who don't. In elementary school when I had to say this we had many conversations about this, and about how you didn't have to say the pledge if you didn't want to, and you didn't have to say 'under God' if you didn't want to. But either way you still had to stand and be respectful. If the kids in your class were talking during it, to me that's just plain disrespectful.

The pledge itself though I have never taken as a statement elevating our nation above the concept, or above any other nation. I've always taken it more as if I was saying, I live in this country which I believe is great, and we have freedom and liberty; and no matter the differences we can all, as americans, say this together and be united- even if some only stand and don't say it out loud.

[Kate]

I'm fro New Zealand, but I lived in the states for 2& 1/2 years and I noticed that although everyone stood up and looked at the flag, not very any people said it, they just sorta mubled along or ignored it. I used to stand up and look at the flag and kinda space out for it, cause I didn't really feel the neeed (being unAmerican) but i got the feeling that no one really cared.

I honestly don't see how its a big deal... but thats just me