Rant # 3 - The Pledge of Allegiance
Before I begin my rant, I'd like to point out that I have officially entered the stage of end-of-semester freaking out in which I actually consider doing work to alleviate the freaking-out-ness. In fact, I have actually begun to do work, and furiously at that. Tomorrow I've got a math assignment and a draft of a paper due, Thursday I've got two finals, Friday I've got a 7-10 page paper and a term paper due and two quizzes. Next Monday I have another paper due, two finals on Tuesday, and one on Thursday. I am going to die. But first I shall take a short break in order to rant for a few minutes...
The Pledge of Allegiance has been quite a controversial issue lately. Should it include the phrase "under God" and should school children be required to say it? So many issues to talk about. First of all, I'd like to point out that it is absurd to be pledging allegiance to a flag. It's a piece of cloth, for heaven's sake! I understand that we're also pledging allegiance "to the Republic for which it stands," but couldn't we cut out the flag part? If I'm going to say it at all, I'd rather be saying it to my country or to the Constitution or something like that, not some scraps of fabric. As for the "under God" part... it's not like some sacred tradition or anything. That part was only added in the '50s. In fact, my dad remembers saying the Pledge without it, and having to learn a whole new rhythm once "under God" was added.
And the whole "our country was founded on Christianity" argument doesn't work either. It wasn't. A good majority of the founding fathers were Deists, actually, and even those who had stronger Christian ties (such as Adams) never dreamed of founding this new country on one religion, since religious persecution is what drove many pilgrims here in the first place. Check out this nifty little thing written under Adams: the Treaty of Tripoli, Article XI. Should "under God" stay in the Pledge? It might be permissable if it was acknowledged that it doesn't refer to the Christian God, or any deity in particular. But why not take it out, and leave it like it was originally written? Oh, that's right... because it was originally written by a socialist, and socialists are atheists, and as we all know secularism is taking over the world and it's going to eat our souls just like socialists and atheists eat our children. (Don't worry; I'm neither a socialist nor an atheist, so your children are safe from me... for the time being. Mwahahaha!)
I stopped saying the Pledge of Allegiance relatively soon after I learned it: sometime in elementary school. I still stood with my hand over my heart, though, and I don't think I really knew why I stopped saying it. Later I stopped even standing. I remember one time at Girl Scout Camp (a.k.a. the deepest levels of hell - but Girl Scouts is a rant for another day) I didn't say the pledge and got chewed out by some dumbass counselor. But, thinking I was a little rebel, I just argued back and still didn't do it. Anyway, that's not the point (there isn't one, really). I still don't say the Pledge, or place my hand over my heart, but now I stand up out of respect for all the troops who have died protecting our country (I started doing this last veterans day for all the WWI, WWII, Korea, and Vietnam soldiers [are there even any WWI soldiers still alive?] because not only do they fascinate me, but I think they deserve respect.) For most of high school we only said the Pledge at assemblies and on Veterans day and Memorial day. But sometime at the end of my senior year the state passed a law requiring all public schools to say it at least once a week. So every Tuesday at the beginning of third hour we all said the Pledge. Unfortunately, my third hour teacher was a Pledge Nazi and we got yelled at every week for not being respectful enough.
Anyway, I don't believe the Pledge of Allegiance should be something that is required in our public schools. And I do think they should take out the "under God" phrase. And I think it's retarded that this is even so much of an issue. And I think I really need to get back to writing my bajillion papers and calculating thousands of derivatives and intervals and whatnot, so I'm leaving my rant where it is.
The Pledge of Allegiance has been quite a controversial issue lately. Should it include the phrase "under God" and should school children be required to say it? So many issues to talk about. First of all, I'd like to point out that it is absurd to be pledging allegiance to a flag. It's a piece of cloth, for heaven's sake! I understand that we're also pledging allegiance "to the Republic for which it stands," but couldn't we cut out the flag part? If I'm going to say it at all, I'd rather be saying it to my country or to the Constitution or something like that, not some scraps of fabric. As for the "under God" part... it's not like some sacred tradition or anything. That part was only added in the '50s. In fact, my dad remembers saying the Pledge without it, and having to learn a whole new rhythm once "under God" was added.
And the whole "our country was founded on Christianity" argument doesn't work either. It wasn't. A good majority of the founding fathers were Deists, actually, and even those who had stronger Christian ties (such as Adams) never dreamed of founding this new country on one religion, since religious persecution is what drove many pilgrims here in the first place. Check out this nifty little thing written under Adams: the Treaty of Tripoli, Article XI. Should "under God" stay in the Pledge? It might be permissable if it was acknowledged that it doesn't refer to the Christian God, or any deity in particular. But why not take it out, and leave it like it was originally written? Oh, that's right... because it was originally written by a socialist, and socialists are atheists, and as we all know secularism is taking over the world and it's going to eat our souls just like socialists and atheists eat our children. (Don't worry; I'm neither a socialist nor an atheist, so your children are safe from me... for the time being. Mwahahaha!)
I stopped saying the Pledge of Allegiance relatively soon after I learned it: sometime in elementary school. I still stood with my hand over my heart, though, and I don't think I really knew why I stopped saying it. Later I stopped even standing. I remember one time at Girl Scout Camp (a.k.a. the deepest levels of hell - but Girl Scouts is a rant for another day) I didn't say the pledge and got chewed out by some dumbass counselor. But, thinking I was a little rebel, I just argued back and still didn't do it. Anyway, that's not the point (there isn't one, really). I still don't say the Pledge, or place my hand over my heart, but now I stand up out of respect for all the troops who have died protecting our country (I started doing this last veterans day for all the WWI, WWII, Korea, and Vietnam soldiers [are there even any WWI soldiers still alive?] because not only do they fascinate me, but I think they deserve respect.) For most of high school we only said the Pledge at assemblies and on Veterans day and Memorial day. But sometime at the end of my senior year the state passed a law requiring all public schools to say it at least once a week. So every Tuesday at the beginning of third hour we all said the Pledge. Unfortunately, my third hour teacher was a Pledge Nazi and we got yelled at every week for not being respectful enough.
Anyway, I don't believe the Pledge of Allegiance should be something that is required in our public schools. And I do think they should take out the "under God" phrase. And I think it's retarded that this is even so much of an issue. And I think I really need to get back to writing my bajillion papers and calculating thousands of derivatives and intervals and whatnot, so I'm leaving my rant where it is.
posted by Emma at 2:54:00 PM
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