<p>I suppose in the vast majority(to my knowledge) of American public schools, the pledge of allegiance is recited pretty much every morning.</p>
<p>I can't stand it. </p>
<p>Not because of the "God," although that is an issue of its own, but indeed a variety of reasons.</p>
<p>The first is the compulsion to say it. It is illegal, by a Supreme Court ruling in Virginia, to force the pledge, or indeed any moment of silence(the latter a Supreme Court case, most recent, from Illinois.) Technically there is no "force," but just today I was yelled at by the principal for not saying the pledge(not at all in a disrespectful way, indeed, it wasn't even being said by anyone(in the entire school!) at the time.) This, in addition to the compulsion by peer pressure, amounts to force indeed.</p>
<p>Which is the most legally bothersome part of my ire, but the second is the lack of heart in saying it.</p>
<p>I know it seems that I'm rabidly anti-American, or some such, for not wanting to say the pledge, but that's not really the case. I am a bit of an internationalist(and a moderate capitalist too, not at all a radical, and certainly not a self-styled communist revolutionary as are so often found in.)</p>
<p>George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, heck, Richard Nixon and Henry Kissenger, are men I in some part admire. Most of all, however, is Madison, who in genius wrote that, my most favorite of all writings, the Constitution, wherin a government was planned for the first time in two and a half millenia.</p>
<p>Which is why I can't stand the lack of feeling and heart in the recitation of the pledge. The nouns, verbs, and all the assorted types of words fall from young citizens' mouths, but they never even register what they're saying. Merely words, not a thought, not a prayer, and especially not an oath. I take my oaths all in sincerity, and mean my words, and such belittling of an ancient style of pact, the spoken oath, is actually rather insulting to me. What good is my word to anyone if it is cheapened as much as it is by the Pledge. "Words without thoughts never to heaven go," or so it is said.</p>
<p>Still, that doesn't really address the pledge itself, merely the recitation of it. I have said that I value my word, and that I am a bit less nationalistic, and a bit capitalistic, but most of all my Constitution. It's for these reasons that I despise the very first clause in the pledge: "I pledge allegiance to the flag." </p>
<p>But I really don't. It's not that there is anything particularly loathsome about the flag, in fact there's not much at all about it. Which is the problem. Before the Republic, and before the Constitution, which is entirely absent, I am made serf to cloth. Cloth not thick enough to keep someone warm, not concerned with law or ethics, and certainly not representative of the Constitution.</p>
<p>Still, if the wording doesn't irk you as it does me, consider the following concept:</p>
<p>If the KKK called itself the Republic of Hate, and utilized the American flag,
"I pledge allegiance, to the flag, of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands."</p>
<p>An extreme and silly example I'm sorry about using, but I think it makes sense. By its word, I am obliged first to save my flag, then my represenatives, the Capitol, and not at all the Constitution. Should The United States become a dictatorship most oppressive, I'd be bound to it by this oath, and I cannot thus accept it as it is.</p>
<p>I love, quite literally, the Constitution. Perhaps by ingrained attitude, or genuine appreciation I do not know, but I do love it. And to put anything else in the government above it is tantamount to blasphemy, to me.</p>
<p>Pardon the harsher language of my writings, it is merely a bit of a reaction to today's affairs. I really do like America, and truly love the Constitution. I can't stand force and foolishness, and it too much embodies both in its current recitations.</p>