Re: The Pledge of Allegience should stay the way it is..

Posted by Ben on Jun 27, 2002 at 16:04
(211.170.79.28)

Re: CANS (Amaranth Rose)

I disagree.

First of all, I think it "is" important to say the Pledge of Allegience. What separates the U.S. from countries like France, England, or other lands is that we are a multi-ethnic and multi-cultural nation. We do not have the natural mono-ethnic cohesiveness of a country like, say Japan or Korea. Our common devotion to and faith in democracy and American values and the "American Way" are the only thing that unifies the variety of different cultures into a single country. Having lived outside the country for a while recently, that seems particularly and vividly clear to me now.

Democracy and pluralism is our national secular religion, and as such, it requires a variety of shared rituals and common experiences to remain vibrant. One of these rituals is the Pledge of Allegience in my opinion. You may consider it to be a pointless excercise when you are a school kid blandly reciting it day after day, but the message is clear to you, and clearly imprinted on you. The ideas behind the repetitive recitals are so important, and so vital to what we are as a country that the adults who are in charge of things want them to be clearly remembered.. or imprinted on every child. That is a very strong message, and you have no idea how deeply that message is imprinted on your character until you are exposed to people and cultures who do not believe it or follow it.

Now as to the words "..under God" in the Pledge of Allegience, I would say that it is a trivial minutia that is ridiculously blown out of proportion. The majority of people in the country are not athiest, and feel it is vitally important that we pay God his due respect. The notion of God, though ostensibly mono-theistic in the Pledge, pratically applies to just about every major religion represented in the country.

I think it is overstepping the bounds of courtesy and respect to expect every person who worships any kind of a God in this country to accept the idea that the government will be run strictly free of any mention of religion whatsoever. It is one thing to eliminate prayer in school, and the posting of the ten commandments, but it is something else to eliminate any trace or mention of any God from all government institutions.

That's definitely fighting the wrong battle for the wrong reasons, and I can't really see any possible good that will ever come of it other than the anger of the entire religious population of the country.


Follow Ups:


Post a Followup

Name:
E-Mail:

Subject:
Comments:

[ Forum ] [ New Message ]