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"Please rise, and join me in the Pledge of Allegiance to our flag...
You're gonna stand up and say the Pledge, or you can get out of my classroom! We all respect this country. If you don't, then leave!"
Some people feel that pledging one's allegiance to the flag, especially in the classroom setting, promotes civic virtue and understanding. To an extent, I agree that it does. The Pledge of Allegiance is a daily affirmation, evoking important feelings of pride as well as a sense of duty. Such strong feelings spur citizens to become involved and, therefore, to become influential in our government and the betterment and preservation of our society.
However, is pledging one's allegiance to the flag the only acceptable way to demonstrate one's patriotism?
After September 11, 2001, all our nation's visible leaders, as well as many citizens, wore flag pins on their lapels. People slap patriotic slogans onto the bottoms of their cars all the time. My father has affixed two flags to poles on opposite ends of our house. One is the Texas flag, and the other, set, of course, slightly higher, is the United States flag. This means that my dad is twice as patriotic as all of our neighbors, who each display only one flag.
Have I left anything out, though? Can you think of any examples I may have neglected thus far? I'm certain you can. We may conclude, therefore, that there are more means, beyond pledging the flag, by which Americans demonstrate their love of country. Be that as it may, my high school recently issued an edict of sorts, declaring that everyone must stop during the Pledge, even if they are in the hallway on their way to class.
Every morning at approximately 7:33, my assistant principal gets on the PA system to lead the entire school in reciting the Pledge. Now, we kids refer to our head principal as "The Man Behind The Curtain", because we hear a great deal about his mystical powers for solving all of life's problems, but none of us has ever actually seen him in the flesh. Our teachers tell us he's really a very busy man.
On the recent anniversary of the terrorist attacks, our head principal actually did appear, live and in person (on the TV screens they've got hooked up in each classroom) to give a profound speech about why we need to remember that day. I will remember one thing he said especially: 'If we do not stick together, we will always be separate.' Now, out of everything said since the terrorist attacks, that has struck me the most poignantly: 'If we do not stick together, we will always be separate.' Of course, I jest, as you may infer from my tone. I discovered that our head principal remains tucked away behind that curtain for very good reason. Nevertheless, he felt it important enough to emerge in order to lead us the way home, even if he himself got a bit lost trying to find Kansas again. For that, one must respect such a man at least a little bit.
My high school principals, nice men that they are, would probably be horrified if they happened to walk into my first period to find that I am one of the people who does not say it. My entire AP government class, which is crammed with about forty students, turns and swears the allegiance to the flag of the United States of America every morning at 7:33, while I stand there, staring at them as though they all have something stuck in their teeth. Author Thomas Hardy wrote a poem in which he said:
Since heart of mine knows not that ease
Which they know; Since it be
That He who breathes 'All's-Well' to these
Breathes no 'All's-Well' to me,
My lack might move their sympathies
And Christian charity.
I feel that that stanza summarizes my feelings perfectly. Although I do not say it with them, I recognize that the majority of people feel very strongly about the Pledge's importance to their daily lives. However, the Pledge of Allegiance just does not move me the way it does them, or in the way it may affect you. Does that make me less patriotic than my classmates? Does it make me any less of an American than anyone else who was born on this soil?
My seventh grade home economics teacher said that it did. She told me that if I didn't say the Pledge, she would send me to... the PRINCIPAL'S OFFICE! When I was twelve years old, getting sent to the principal's office was a fate worse than death. I dreaded the tarnish any confrontation with authority figures could have had on my public record. Thankfully, a girl I met at summer camp once taught me to mouth words (like "strawberries" or "cherries") over and over during songs to make it appear as though I was singing (I'm tone deaf, or at least, my vocal cords are). So in seventh grade I mouthed the names of fruits, while everyone else mouthed the words to the Pledge. Coming back to my senior year in high school, I simply remain silent, because I do respect this country.
And refusing to pledge the flag every morning does not indicate that I do not respect the men and women who have fought and died for or are currently fighting on behalf of this country. My mother's uncle, Bud, blew up bridges in France during World War II. It affected his hearing, as one might expect, and I always had to scream up at him if I ever wanted him to hear a word I was saying. More recently, my cousin, Caleb, has made three tours of Afghanistan with our Special Ops forces. You may recall hearing toward the beginning of the campaign about a couple of helicopters that crashed into the side of a mountain over there, with several American casualties. My cousin, Caleb, mans the gun position in a helicopter that is very similar to those. To accuse me of not having any gratitude for our armed forces is absolutely ridiculous.
You may be asking yourselves, then, "Why, if someone loves this country so much, would she not just pledge the flag already?" For one thing, patriotism cannot be coerced. Obedience may be coerced; submission to the will of the majority may be coerced, but true patriotism cannot be forced from someone. Respect for the United States of America is best shown on one's own terms, not according to the dictates of others who have determined what those terms should be, which brings me to my greater point.
Most people believe this country to be, as the Pledge states, "One nation, under God". However, I stand before you as proof that it isn't. The United States does indeed compose one nation from many, E pluribus unum, and most of that many believes in a god in one form or another. However, there are millions of people who live and work here and do not believe in a god. As you can see, it's basically the only way I classify as a minority. Unfortunately, there is no affirmative action for agnostics. I can't walk up to a college board and declare,
"Hey- I don't have salvation! I feel that this puts me at a severe disadvantage to everyone else who's been applying here lately; therefore, I would appreciate it immensely if you let me into your college at a very reduced rate."
Nor am I out to convince anyone that they ought to change the wording of the Pledge, just for me to accept it. I wouldn't say to a Christian, for example,
"You know, I really do dig that religion of yours! You don't do human sacrifice, which I am totally against, and I think 'Thou shalt not steal' has a pretty good ring to it. However, this God of yours and that Jesus fellow, well, they just aren't doing it for me. Delete every mention of them, and I may well reconsider accepting that book of yours."
People who want to pledge their allegiance to America every morning of their lives ought to be able to. All I or anyone else require from the majority is the same attitude in return, because I really don't mind not having my mail delivered every Sunday. And I don't care about what's printed on my dollar bill, so long as the value of that bill is strong enough that I can buy a pack of Juicy Fruit with it and still receive some change back. But I do happen to resent having my constitutional rights, such as the freedom of speech and the freedom of religion, being trampled upon by others.
You may feel that pledging the flag is the ultimate display of patriotism, but because the pledge contains the phrase, "One nation, under God", I simply cannot support it. Only I may determine who I am and what I will stand for, which is a basic fact of life I hope my principals recognize before they apprehend me in the hallway. I would hope they realize, as I hope each of you realize, that no one ought to be called "un-American" for exercising his or her American rights.
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