Referring to the recent suspension of three teenagers for not “standing” (yes standing) for the pledge of allegiance. There are a lot of different angles you could come at here. You could play the whole religous role – since the word “God” is in the pledge of allegiance maybe receiting this is offensive towards your religious beliefs. Or, you could take the freedom of speech approach (the very thing our country is built on). These students have a right not to say the pledge of allegiance. Well I am not going to take that angle either.
What about the message itself. The message that we believe in our country, our heritage and for all of those people that have (and continue) to fight for our freedom. That is a very strong message and I think that it gets lost a bit in the current rendition of the Pledge of Allegiance. If you were not aware – the pledge of allegiance has changed a lot over the last 150+ years.
Maybe we need to change the words a bit. Update them so that our youngsters can understand them better. I propose changing from this:
“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.”
to this:
“I am wicked proud of the country I live in. All my peeps and I are a member of at least one of the groups found on Facebook when searching for ‘United States of America’. We aren’t too fond of war but we respect those that fought and ioho we are as thankful as our non conforming minds will allow.”
On a more serious note: My true belief here is that a student in the US today has the “right” (and I use this term loosely) to not recite the Pledge of Allegiance (you should think twice about either leaving or running for office as soon as your turn eighteen) – but you are required to at least stand and show respect for the rest of us that believe in and love the country we live in today.
