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I Pledge Allegiance

Every American-raised child can relate to this morning ritual. We all stand up, mumble a few words, and then continue our daily lives.

This act is harmless enough, or is it?

The pledge of allegiance needs to be removed from the public school setting. No child should be indoctrinated into pledging one’s self to a nation. No child should be forced to admit the existence of a god. But most importantly, no child should have to face scorn form their peers for having a different, but valid, ideology.

Indoctrination is a crime. Indoctrination kills intellectual curiosity. Forcing someone to repeat a phrase and hold it to be true does not allow them to think for themselves. This is what the pledge of allegiance does. It is forcing school children to believe that America is “indivisible” and “one nation under god” and has “liberty and justice for all”. I am not here to attack American values. I personally am a non-believer, but I do believe that the American government does its best to give liberty and justice for all. But my opinion, nor the governments, matters in a public school setting. If a child does not believe in any portion of the pledge of allegiance, he/she should not be forced to say it or indoctrinated into believing it. Nationalist indoctrination is as bad as religious indoctrination. They both kill the intellectual curiosity that drives people to think and be creative. We cannot let a Red Scare chant preside in a setting that is supposed to cultivate thought and creativity.

The topic of God is something I will be covering in many future posts. I am Atheist, but I do not believe that the belief in God is detrimental to society. But forcing a child to say that America is “One nation under God” is wrong. Religious values, or lack there of, are very important to most individuals. No one wants them violated in a uninvited way. Unfortunately, the pledge of allegiance does that. Saying this phrase gives credence to the idea of a supernatural, which some people are not willing to do. The pledge of allegiance was originally put into the school setting to have a distinction between the godless Soviets and the Americans. There is no need to emphasize this distinction since the Soviet Union…well it doesn’t exist anymore. This phrase is hindering the value of religious freedom, a value upon which America was built upon.

Numerous times, along with other classmates, I have sat down during the pledge of allegiance. Needless to say, the condescending looks form my other classmates is unwarranted. America is supposed to be the land of opportunity, the land of freedom. It is supposed to foster the belief in different ideologies. Yet when I respectfully disagree with the ideology of the masses, I am scorned upon. People tell me to respect the flag and be American. Heck, I’m not even American. I am not allowed to vote or run for president. I do respect America and I do very much like this country (and I am planing on applying for citizenship). But by not agreeing with the nations ideology does not mean I am disrespecting it. It just means that I am disagreeing. If the United States of America wants all of its citizens and residents to agree with its ideology, it might as well model Nazi Germany. America is a land of ideological diversity, and is great because of that. No one should be forced to believe an ideology, nor be scorned for disagreeing with the ideology held by the masses.

http://wisethinking.wordpress.com/

Tags: america, god, indoctrination, pledge

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Comment by Frowzy Dave on September 1, 2011 at 10:31pm: "...with liberty and justice for all." Who has less liberty then the children forced to say this cult-like pledge? It could be worse though, here in the UK we force our kids to say the whole Lord’s Prayer in school assemblies. Not just Christian schools, all of them. Usually with a couple of hymns too. I remember the Muslim kids got to skip assemblies every day because of it and I was so jealous. When I asked to be excluded for the same reason (I wasn't a Christian), they said I was just making excuses for getting out of assemblies. They were right, I hated that bullshit.

Comment by Kris King on August 30, 2011 at 8:09am: Oh, and Ava, I agree ... "E Pluribus Unum" ("Out of many, one" for those who don't know) is a perfect motto for any nation to have. I've seen other alternatives that I liked too - "In Reason We Trust" was quite good, and "In Each Other We Trust" isn't bad either.

Comment by Kris King on August 30, 2011 at 8:06am: I think your pledge of allegiance needs to go period. I think the very idea of getting kids to stand and swear such a pledge is really rather creepy, and borders on being a rally (not quite the kind you see on the History Channel with subtitles, but heading in that direction). Also, I think it's dangerously close to make the same mistake that communism did - replacing, or at least complementing, god worship with state worship.

When you belong to a club (your country / church), you pay your membership fees (taxes / tithes), and abide by the rules (laws / bible) - you shouldn't have to regularly, and publicly, declare your love for and obedience to the club as well. If you've got a Blockbuster card they don't make you stand in the store and verbally swear to uphold the values of providing scratched discs and overpriced snacks before they'll let you rent a movie.

A one-off pledge when you become a citizen, I can understand - it's a verbal gesture and is equivalent to the "club membership application form" (a version of which you'd essentially have in the form of legal documents). But to insist upon it every day from children - that's indoctrination, whether god is in it or not.

Sorry, bordering on a rant there ... :) Excellent post, btw - keep up the great work!

Comment by Ava Wilson on August 30, 2011 at 3:59am: The pledge of allegiance just needs needs to go back to how it was originally written, which contained no reference to God and was not a prayer. The same as our motto used to be E Pluribus Unum, not 'In God We Trust'. We need to revert to what the founding fathers wanted.

Comment by Jamie Hertter on August 30, 2011 at 2:39am: Back in High School I asked Jehova's Witnesses why they didn't stand for the pledge. They said because it was a prayer. I realized I didn't have to stand for it for the same reason. And I stopped. I had a few looks, but most people just knew me well enough not to care. I think it was a good time for people who didn't believe to stand up and be counted. I only had one teacher take exception, and whoo boy, did she. Luckily, I had my parents to support me, so it went nowhere. It was before the religious right began it's campaign, and now we have the Tea Party. It was before 9/11 where you were either with us, or against us. It's not as easy today to be different. Which makes it more important to be so.

Comment by Karla on August 30, 2011 at 1:44am: I can see our Pledge of Allegiance needing some re-wording, I cannot disagree on this issue. I think it's important to bond with one's own country and fellow citizens but we can certainly do so without invoking the "god" word. Same goes for our currency, as Eugene posts, we need to shake this need for religion but sadly enough, I bet I don't see this happening in my own lifetime. All I can do is hope.