"I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all." I don't know how many times I was forced to chant the above in school, but back then I wasn't old enough to judge the truth of the words. Are they but a dream of what we want to be...could be...should be?
It all depends on whether you actually come to mean what you have been pledging. I personally think that one of our problems today is that few people are living here to be Americans. They want all the benefits of the nation, but they don't actually want to become Americans at all. Many don't even bother to learn the language let alone actually MEAN what this pledge intends when they are forced to recite it. If you move to a country, what's the point if you don't plan to become part of that country? Unfortunately, the US government routinely betrays the Americans. Shames them on the world stage. Americans don't get to vote on issues like drugs, war and immigration. Those important issues are held back from our control.
Our Father, Who art in Heaven, hallowed be Thy name; Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven. Give us this day our daily bread; and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us; and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Amen. Sorry, I just couldn't help myself. What I love the most and think should be the guiding light, the constant burning flame, the perpetual and the unending: none other than the Preamble to the Constitution of the United States We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America. (welfare means well-being).
Yes I was told growing up to stand and put your hand on your heart and listen to it over the intercom. Growing up I can't remember a teacher every giving us a reason why we have to stand and say it. Then in highschool most people would stand up look around and sit down. Not saying the words or putting your hand anywhere. One of those things they force down the publics throat without ever telling them why whether for good or bad.
I made a thread on here a while back about how I'm concerned about my kids entering school because of things like the pledge. How I just think it was absolutely creepy and a bit too much North Korea like to have to stand their every morning, with your hand over your heart pledging to the flag like that. I mean kindergartens and young kids like that don't really know what they are saying but I see it as a form of indoctrination to nationalism and various other things that don't sit right with me. When I was a kid I only remember (in younger years) one kid not saying the pledge... I really don't want my kids to be forced to do that but I also don't wanna make them stand out as weird for not doing it... But I def don't see it as a "right" practice.
The history of the Pledge is rather interesting. Not many Americans even know that the pledge not written by a founding father. It was written by a Christian Socialist by the name of Francis Belamy, more than 100 years after the first Independence Day. These Christian Socialists sought to fulfill their goal of creating a nation based around centralized federal authority, and single-state nationalism. The only problem was that at the time, individual states had more rights than they do today. Their goal was to create a nationalist state where they indoctrinate the youth in putting their country over their own lives and well being. The writers of the constitution favored all the individual states to have their own laws with minimal federal influence; to be like little countries of their own so to speak. But nationalist socialism can't be achieved when state government has more influence than Washington DC. This is why the Christian Socialists made it a law for every public school to recite the pledge: to indoctrinate the youth to become federalized nationalists to a future authoritarian nation by exploiting school children. This is why the words "one nation" are strongly emphasized in the pledge. The founding fathers would abhor the pledge of allegiance since they were strong advocates of state rights and state governance. Prior to the 1930s, the pledge was not recited with your right hand over your chest. Originally it was recited with your right hand extended 45 degrees forward. Just like a Nazi salute. And guess where the Nazis came up with that style of salute? The United States of course!
The moment you pledge allegiance to a flag - or any other inanimate object for that matter - you have a problem.
From Wikipedia Central to early challenges were Jehovah's Witnesses, a group whose beliefs preclude swearing loyalty to any power lesser than God. In the 1940 Supreme Court case Minersville School District vs. Gobitis, an 8-1 majority in the Court held that a school district's interest in promoting national unity permitted it to require Witness students to recite the Pledge along with their class mates. Gobitis was an unpopular decision in the press, and it led to a rash of mob violence and intimidation against Jehovah's Witnesses;[2] three years later in West Virginia State Board of Education vs. Barnette, the Court reversed itself, voting 6-3 to forbid a school from requiring the Pledge.
the are a dream of what we are told to want to pretend, not even to want to have actually happen. i pledge alligance to the flag of the imaginary planet inside my head, and to the way of life for which it stands, the limitless diversity of an infinite universe, with freedom from stress and mundaneness, for all. there is nothing more "unamerican", then for there to be, any such thing, as a "the", american way of anything. whatever the ideology, whatever the belief, whatever even the form of government; the dominance of aggressiveness is always tyranny.
