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When I posted my previous essay in another forum, a friend of mine left a note that read: one of the residents at her work, a Holocaust survivor, believes in the pledge of allegiance and I disagree with it.
I used to say the Pledge of Allegiance. I would omit the words 'to the flag' because I believe it's morally offensive to be asked to pledge allegiance to a piece of cloth. I don't believe in cloth. I believe in values.
Americans, from the Founding Fathers to the GIs of World War II, did not sacrifice their lives for a piece of cloth. They did so for the values Americans claimed to hold dear.
But lately, I've stopped saying it. The main reason is that it's become something of no meaning to most Americans. Too many Americans intone it and claim to revere it but don't take its words seriously.
If one says one believes in one nation, then why do so many Americans treat other Americans like traitors because they disagree with them politically?
If one believes in a republic, then why do so many Americans support decisions that make us an empire?
If one believes in liberty and justice for all, then why do so many Americans support policies that deny their fellow Americans (and folks abroad) liberty and justice because they happen to have the 'wrong' skin color, political views, religion, ethnic background or socioeconomic status?
This is yet another example of how 'patriotism' has been twisted into empty gestures of cheap symbolism completely devoid of substance. Patriotism has become nothing more than closed-minded, insular nationalism. Patriotism has become something you say, not something you actually do.
Patriotism has become completely separated from civics. Saying you pledge allegiance to one nation, to America the republic and to liberty and justice for all means NOTHING unless you actually DO something to preserve and advance those values.
Talk is cheap. If you claim allegiance to these things, prove it. Put up or shut up.
Write letters to the newspaper. Organize or volunteer for a civic group. Attend a local government meeting. Run for office or help someone who is. Speak out. Expect things of your elected officials, because when you expect nothing, that's what you'll always get.
Is the Pledge of Allegiance something you truly believe in and want to put into action? Or is it just another ideological wedge in the petty culture wars? Is it something you just intone just because it's politically correct, because that's what everyone else does? Or does it express a set of values you're actually willing to put into action?
I think it's about time the silent majority takes back patriotism from those who've perverted it to ends contrary to commonly held American values. If you claim to be patriotic, then act like it.
1 comment:
Personally, I object to The Pledge because it usually involves children too young to grasp the full import of their words and that it pledges loyalty to a state (and it's authority), which is in direct contradiction to what was intended in the USA in the first place.
You say that the pledge doesn't mean anything to most Americans. The cynic in me says, I'm not sure it was ever supposed to mean something (at least something a Progressive like you or a libertarian like myself would value). Why else lead children (as young as 4) in the Pledge of Allegiance, something they won't have the knowledge and reason to grasp until they are much older. A great way to hide the full import of something is to make it blend in. Make it habit and mundane. But that's just my opinion.
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