Great opinion piece on the pledge

[FreedomAngel82]

Check it out. It's a very honest piece.

Link: http://chattanoogan.com/articles/article_72985.asp

“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 hate saying that. But I go ahead and say it anyway and hold my right hand over my heart and face the flag like everybody else. But I hate it.

Why do I hate it? Because it is a fake and phony thing to say, right from the beginning and all the way to the end of it.

Why should anyone have to recite a pledge of allegiance to one’s country? Shouldn’t that be taken for granted?

If everyone in the room recites the pledge, does that mean that there are no traitors among them? Is that the purpose of it? To weed out traitors?

But wouldn’t a traitor be happy to recite a pledge? What difference would it make to him? Having to recite such a fake proof of patriotism wouldn’t bother a traitor, or an idiot either.

The only type of person that it could bother would be one of those, such as myself, that believe that true patriotism is diminished by such fake and phony proofs of patriotism and allegiance to one’s country.

More there and replies to the author....

[IntravenousDemilo]

1. Being a "furriner", I've never quite understood the purpose of coercing

kids to say the Pledge of Allegiance every morning (either with or without the "under god" part). It's as if their citizenship somehow wears off overnight while they're sleeping or something and needs to be reapplied. Completely illogical, and I'm glad we don't have to do something that jingoistic here.

It also promotes the idea of "American exceptionalism", which I am convinced is one of the reasons people fly planes into American skykscrapers. It's certainly one of the things the rest of the world hates, this idea that the US thinks it's so terribly special that it doesn't have to listen to anyone else.

If only schoolchildren weren't inculcated with this opinion from Day One, through such things as the Pledge of Allegiance, then you guys, and all the rest of us, would be much happier.