 |
|
A GenePoool.com
Editorial
The Pledge of Allegiance
I would like to stand up right now and applaud the Ninth Circuit court for determining, correctly, that the Pledge of Allegiance is unconstitutional. This was a brave decision. And in the same vein, I think it's time we took a good look at the entire thing.
Here is the Pledge of Allegiance in its entirety, which I confess I had to look up:
"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."
As the Ninth Circuit court has already thankfully established, the whole "one nation under God" line simply has to go. Granted, the word "God" could mean something different to everybody, and probably does. In a single classroom, this could be a Christian God, a Jewish God, and an Islamic God, depending on the child. God could also be Vishnu, Satan, or-- taking age into account-- Barney. My own personal impression of God is a lot like Hannibal Lecter: he seems like someone I'd like to have a conversation with, but while he usually appears very rational, every now and then he kills lots of people for no apparent reason. The point is, we're not enforcing a specific God on anybody, which is a good thing.
Unfortunately, making "God" singular forces childen who believe in a plurality of deities to make pick just one. Maybe they don't want to. Or, what if the child comes from a very strict Jewish household, where it is considered a sin to utter the word "God." They may go to hell because of our carelessness, and who wants that on their conscience? Worse, atheist children are completely out of the loop. They go home every night and learn from their parents that there is no God, then go to school and learn something diferent. How confusing is this? As everyone knows, children are utterly incapable of making any choices of this sort on their own; in this case, then, rote memorization of a brief phrase including the word "God" would force them to think, which would detract from their school work.
We must therefore protect the atheists, polytheists, and Hasidic Jews from this word. Fortunately, when it comes to this line there are many changes we can make, such as:
"...one nation under (mutter.)" This is how I said much of the Catholic Profession of Faith when I went to church on Sundays as a child, mainly because I was never sure of the words.
"...one nation under Dog." I refer to this as the Dyslexic Version. The Obscure Animated Character version is "...one nation, Underdog."
"...one nation under whatever deity or deities you or your parents choose to worship, or not worship, as the case may be." This is the most accurate, but loses some of the poetry.
And my personal favorite, "...one nation under Canada."
Choosing one of these alternative phrases would solve things, but only if the "God" was the only problem. It's not. If you will study the first part of the Pledge, you will find that our young children are swearing fealty to an inanimate object. What good will this do to them? They may grow up thinking the flag may one day be willing to take a bullet for them, or help them with their homework, or walk them home from school. Flags can do no such thing. They just sit there on the top of their flagpoles and wave. The children can wave back, but again, what good will that do? And think of the potential trauma should one of these children see the flag taken down and folded up at the end of the day, rather than going home to the flag-wife and the little flag-ettes.
The flag is a symbol, and as our young, impressionable minds will discover as they grow older, symbols mean different things to different people. Here in the United States we may look fondly upon our flag, and maybe salute it from time to time-- even though it doesn't salute back-- and on occasion, we may burn it, or turn it into a pair of pants. Overall, we like our flag, and treat it fairly well. But in other countries, our flag could mean something entirely different. Not only will the flag not take a bullet for someone else, it may inspire a hail of gunfire all its own.
Rather than pledge allegiance to the flag, it makes far more sense to choose a person to avow fealty to, such as the President. Unfortunately, this also creates some problems, as the name of the President is different every four to eight years, not counting the occasional assassination attempt or colonoscopy. Asking children to memorize something that changes from time to time is also very confusing, which may force them to think, and again, this will interfere with school work.
Fortunately, the next line offers us a solution. "...And the Republic for which it stands." This line makes perfectly good sense, and makes one wonder why we even bothered bringing up the flag in the first place.
However, there is another problem. Within the span of twenty-two words we have referred to the U.S. as a republic, a nation, and a collection of states. Which is it? You and I, being mature adults, understand that it is all three, but how confusing must this be for a child? Here they are, pledging allegiance to a flag, which represents a bunch of states, which are actually a nation calling itself a republic. This is easily as confusing as the whole God thing.
Then we get to the word "indivisible." This is patently untrue. We need only look up to the previous line to find that this one nation is divided into states. And we-- as a nation, republic, loose collection of states, whatever-- have ample amounts of divisiveness at our disposal. We have so much divisiveness we sometimes export it to other countries. Clearly, this word does not belong in a sentence describing the United States.
Finally, "...with liberty and justice for all." This isn't so bad, except that the two words are inherently contradictory. I am not at liberty to kill someone (unless the United States sends me somewhere to do so, and then it is okay) and if I do kill someone, the person I have killed clearly has not received justice, even if I am caught. Certainly liberty and justice for all is something we can shoot for, but saying we've already got it is somewhat disingenuous.
Taken all together, the Pledge of Allegiance is a confused mish-mash of illogic, untruths, exaggerations and repetitions. And we wonder why our children lag behind so many other countries in so many educational categories. Other countries don't require their school-age kids to repeat something this confusing.
Here, then, is the Corrected Pledge of Allegiance:
I Pledge allegiance to whomever might be President of the United States at this time, and to the Republic (i.e., the United States) for which he or she was elected by what may or may not have been a majority to be in charge of, one nation under Canada, extremely divisible, with liberty within the bounds of legally acceptable behavior and justice for some.
I recommend demanding all school-age children begin reciting this daily. At gunpoint, if necessary.
© 2002, Gene Doucette
| |
|