Does anyone else feel the same way I do about reciting the Pledge of Allegiance? (drafted in 1892)
The first issue I have with the pledge is that it is directed to a piece of fabric ("I pledge allegiance to the flag"). One could argue that the flag is just a symbol that encompasses what we are as a nation. If that is the case, we should skip the flag and pledge directly to what the flag represents ("...to the Republic").
"One Nation under God"(added to the pledge in 1954) Are we really?
2.4 percent of the U.S. population (7.4 million) in 2009 claimed to be atheist, according to a Pew survey on religious affiliation. I would also add that a good many people who are affiliated with a religion live their lives in a manner that is not consistent with that religion's core beliefs. "One Nation under God" seems to be a bit of a fallacy.
I'm not suggesting that we alter the pledge. It seems to be a ritual that has become outdated in my opinion. Also, I have never been an advocate for pledges. The way I conduct myself in the American public speaks more than any pledge. If you ever see me at a school board meeting sitting silently during The Pledge of Allegiance, please do not think poorly of me.
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You haven't posted a blog in ages! Or maybe I just haven't seen
ReplyDeleteThem. I've only read like 2 ((I think)) so far.
Jeff and I talked about the pledge of allegiance recently. It's like a cult. Most kids, at school and everywhere, don't even know what they're saying. They say it cuz that's just what they do daily at school. I don't even know if they still do it daily or even at all, but I sure do remember having this huge thing in grade school every single morning...we'd literally hold this huge flag while the whole school was pledging to 'it'.((We always fought on who can hold the flag..lol)) until we got the intercoms in the whole school, and we started saying it out loud in our classrooms. Haha
I feel the issue is that the pledge holds no meaning or value for the majority of people who are reciting it, save for the military and politicians.
ReplyDeleteI guess, I don't mind it being recited in schools (which are a government run institution) so long as a thorough explanation of the pledge has been given to ALL students as well as an explanation of their rights as a citizen. No child should be pledging his allegiance to anything when he is too young to understand what it means, and is too young to know he has a right to refuse to do so.
Kids in elementary school respect the teacher as an authoritative figure and surly would not want to disobey when told to stand and pledge. So they do, even without knowing why. This is wrong.
I think nationalism is a good thing, but not when it's forced.
As for the issue of g*d in the pledge, I think it needs to be removed, and never should have been added in the first place. By removing "...under god", almost everybody can agree with the pledge itself. With "...under god", 2.4% (your figure) of the population is left feeling discriminated against. Everybody can say the pledge without feeling they are saying something they don't agree with.
One last personal note: My mind is always blown when I see statistics about the population of atheists. As an atheist myself, I go about daily life thinking that at least a good half of the people in this country see the world in a similar way that I do. I can't be that far off normal, right? I'm normal! ...and then I see the stats and think, crap....
thanks for the input metal....Don't be thrown off by how little the atheist population is according to statistics. I'm a science guy who grew up in a Christian home, and it took a long journey at looking at the world through science to figure out that god is made up in our heads. Again, thanks for the post.
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