Discussion for article #238118
Creepy. Just like The Pledge itself.
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The hand out, palm up gesture reminds me of Oliver Twist asking for more food (from the nanny state). I wonder what arch conservatives/libertarians would think of this association with patriotic ritual?
I was in school in the late '50s and early '60s in a very conservative and wealthy suburb of Detroit, and while reciting the Pledge was a daily routine, we never, ever, did anything other than put our hands over our heart while we said the words. The idea of holding out our arms in a very Nazi-like salute would have been unthinkable.
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Sieg Heil, y’all…
I have never understood why I would pledge allegiance to a flag. My allegiance is to my country, not a piece of cloth. When I was in school the “under god” phrase wasn’t used yet, and I have always deleted it when I’m in a group pledging allegiance to a piece of cloth.
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It is ridiculous that we force 5 year olds to pledge their fealty to a flag every day of their grade school lives. I stopped doing it in high school back in the early 70s. My home room teacher asked me to step out of the class room while the “patriotic” kids did it. I said no. And I didn’t.
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Nationalism is overrated.
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The neoliberals call it “statism”, as in–communist statism, as in-fascist statism, as in-democratic statism, as in–American Democracy, circa 1776. Yep, they don’t like them States, whatever their system of government. Democracy, which sounds all nice and good, but it gets in the way of monopoly capitalism, I mean, all those little people voting to earn a living wage and keep their water clean and everything.
I don’t remember doing it at all in high school, probably because we didn’t have home room.
If there’s one sure way to take the meaning and sincerity out of something, it’s to enforce rote repetition of it every day.
No doubt many children are saying some version of the following (thanks, Jon Carroll):
“I pledge a lesion to the flag,
of the United State of America,
and to the republic for Richard Stans,
one naked individual,
with liver tea and just this for all.”
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The Founders refused to include a Pledge or loyalty oath in the Constitution due to their experience from the British that they recite such upon demand. Now we have a Pledge that has become the very thing that the Founders eschewed. A loyalty oath required by law in many states for proof of patriotism.
Like our Founders, I refuse to recite the Pledge.
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Oh boy, you’re not kidding!
Especially when blended with religion and militarism.
I’m a good bit older than you are, and that’s all I can recall ever doing. WWII pretty well made arm-extended salutes anathema. And though I was then religious, I didn’t really approve of adding “Under God” to the pledge; I thought it was superfluous and pretty much irrelevant. But by then I’d been taught about separation of Church and State, and heartily approved of that. Do kids even learn that any more?
I grew up in SoCal. My kindergarten teacher was Canadian. She never taught us the pledge and the song that followed it. We got to 1st Grade and were shocked to learn that we had been doing it wrong the whole year. Hilarious. I still think this is a dumb practice for jingoistic people with no sense of self. I don’t chant at yoga and I don’t say the pledge. I will never find inner peace and I’m a bad Merikun. I can live with both.