To make it worse, I found out not too long ago that the version they made me say wasn’t even the original. “Under God” did not exist in the original version of the pledge.
EDIT: For those that were curious, apparently it was added in 1954 under Dwight Eisenhower.
Since I became an adult I always found it kind of strange. I did not realize just how strange it was until I dropped my son off at Pre-K a little late and walked in to a whole class of 4 year olds hands on hearts mumbling through the pledge. It was sooo eerie.
The pledge was written, by a minister in 1891 without the “under God” part. It was added by Congress in 1954 in the midst of Macarthyism and the Red Scare. In 2002 an appeals court said that forcing public school students to recite it was went against the separation of Church and State, and it was but stayed. The Supreme Court overturned that in 2004, but I think a lot of schools may have dropped it then.
that was a huge issue i had with it too, but i omitted that so i didnt seem like an edgy tween atheist (though its a 100% valid criticism that i should have included).
It's very strange. It's a very doublethink cult. The same people who worship the flag will vote to not give health benefits to 9/11 first responders. Those same people will then use american flag napkins.
As a German, this entire things feels always so bizarre to me. If a teacher “over here” would try and make their students do something similar for the German flag, said teacher would get kicked out of the faculty pretty quickly.
The same goes for religion by the way. While we did have classes about religion for a while (Katholischer / Evangelischer Religionsunterricht), the teachers were more or less just explaining what certain passages of the Bible meant, how they had been misinterpreted in the past, what is similar or different between certain religions etc. but not even they were allowed to make their students actually pray.
PS: and those were optional classes by the way. If your parents didn’t want you to attend, you didn’t attend. No discussion.
I’m 44 and grew up in Miami. We had the regular southern patriotism mixed with the Cubans who were very friggin thankful to be living in the US (including my family!) So you better believe we all said it! But the way I saw it, my parents and grandparents left Cuba so that we wouldn’t have to do that kinda of things in school. I love my country, but it’s crazy to put your hands over your heart and pledge every single morning, not to mention that under God part that was added only a couple of decades before I even started to say it.
As a big fan of Groenig’s “Life in Hell” comic strip, I just started saying one of his versions:
I plead alignment to the flakes of the untitled snakes of a merry cow, and to the republicans, for which they scam: one nacho, underpants with licorice and jugs of wine for owls.
What if you don't agree with it, for example the "under of god" part.
Does it have a legal status? For example can you be arrested for not pleging allegiance, or failing to have pledged at some point in your life?
What about freedom of speech? How can one force you to express yourself? I feel like freedom of speech goes both ways : I'd like to have the same freedom of "not speech" as well.
The Pledge of Allegiance was first created in 1892 to foster a sense of national unity. It was brainwashy even back then, especially having children recite it every morning, but it wasn't really intentionally malicious. It was intended to instill a sense of national fraternity in a fractured group of people, during a time that political tensions ran high and America was being filled with a large percentage of immigrants. Giving everyone an identity as Americans was important in moving the country forward at the time. That doesn't make it not nationalism, but at the time it was instituted I can understand where they were coming from.
Adding the "Under God" part and requiring it to be recited every morning before class wasn't instituted until 1954 during the Cold War era, when adults were worried that their children were commie spies. Their way of solving this was to shove Christianity and American Nationalism down the throats of everyone within earshot.
2,3,4. Via the Pledge's Wikipedia page:
In 1940, the Supreme Court, in Minersville School District v. Gobitis, ruled that students in public schools, including the respondents in that case—Jehovah's Witnesses who considered the flag salute to be idolatry—could be compelled to swear the Pledge. In 1943, in West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette, the Supreme Court reversed its decision. Justice Robert H. Jackson, writing for the 6 to 3 majority, went beyond simply ruling in the precise matter presented by the case to say that public school students are not required to say the Pledge on narrow grounds, and asserted that such ideological dogmata are antithetical to the principles of the country, concluding with:
If there is any fixed star in our constitutional constellation, it is that no official, high or petty, can prescribe what shall be orthodox in politics, nationalism, religion, or other matters of opinion or force citizens to confess by word or act their faith therein. If there are any circumstances which permit an exception, they do not now occur to us.
So as of current day, no, you cannot be compelled to stand and recite the Pledge. You WILL most likely receive nasty comments from your homeroom teacher, particularly if they are religious and/or older folks, and can be sent out of class to the principals office for basically any reason or no reason including this. It's against the law for the principal to leverage punishment against you for not reciting the pledge, but they can and will make your life very difficult if they feel like it without direct "punishment".
But in general, no, there is no legal punishment or precedent for someone who does not recite the pledge of allegiance. At worst, if you're accused of being a spy or of treason, it will be wielded as evidence that you are "un-American" and act as "proof" that you hate America. But it is not a punishable offense by itself.
The long and short of it is that the pledge of allegiance is exactly what it says on the tin; you are pledging that your loyalty is to the flag (by proxy, to the United States). However, as a US citizen, one has a 1st amendment right that is supposed to protect you from being forced by the government to say the pledge (otherwise known as compelled speech). Constitutionally, you cannot be arrested or otherwise punished for not saying the pledge, or for expressing distaste for the pledge, leaving out the "under God" part while reciting the pledge, or even saying that you think the flag is nothing more than a nationalist propaganda symbol.
On a different note, as an American who grew up mindlessly citing the pledge throughout my K-12 years, it was a pretty harsh realization when I learned that this is essentially a kind of indoctrination. I honestly feel a bit gross when I go to my kid's school events and the first thing they do is trot out the flag and start the pledge. I wouldn't be surprised if there was a push to have it removed as a regular thing at public schools in the US (nor would I be surprised at a reactionary response from the "patriots" in our country if there was a movement against the pledge...).
As school children, we swore this oath. It describes loyalty to the flag and (more importantly) the nation and ideals that the flag represents.
As a child, I would just be silent during the 'under god' part. No one noticed. If they had, there isn't really anything they could do about it.
There have been lawsuits. Basically, you are not legally obligated to say it. There would be a lot of peer pressure to do so, because each of our school days would start with the whole class saying it.
Again, it is controversial, but you are not technically forced to say it.
Here is a breakdown of what the pledge means: "I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America"
I swear loyalty to the flag "and to the Republic for which it stands,"
and to the government it represents "one Nation under God,"
a country guided by the Lord! "indivisible, with liberty and justice for all"
united, with freedom and justice for everyone*
No, there’s no legal requirements to say the pledge or anything. I’ve never seen it done outside of schools, it’s just a weird tradition that has been carried on.
In my high school nobody in my classes actually said it, but one of the teachers or the student council president would say it over the intercom (we didn’t even stand for it, usually just went back to our work while they talked).
As a younger child in elementary school I remember we were expected to say it, and I do remember a couple kids getting yelled at for not saying it (by the teacher, I don’t think there was any formal punishment). I know some Muslim children would say the whole thing and leave out the “under God” part.
I never paid much attention to it until I got older and realized how weird it was. I’m hoping it goes away eventually.
1.it's exactly as it seems, its a pledge of devotion to your country and it's principles.
2. i didn't agree with it, i was berated for it, others didn't and nothing happens. it all depends on the situation
3. i did learn that it was made illegal to force anyone to stand in 1943, but many teachers and schools clearly didn't care or know. you cannot get in any legal trouble for not standing, you have the complete freedom to not stand or pledge ever, but that doesnt stop some peoples negative reactions when you exercise that right.
4. it does go both ways, but as i said in point 3, some people in charge didn't care. the teacher took advantage of the fact that i was a kid and he had authority over me, despite me being within my rights
It was tacked on in the 50s (note how it kinda messes with the cadence) because of godless commies. There have been other little tweaks as well, some making it worse (e.g. "under god") and some better (abandoning the, herrrm, "Roman" salute). While always a bit weirdly nationalistic, the core of the modern pledge was written by a Christian Socialist and replaced one that was worse and more explicitly religious.
I guess it's not so weird that it exists and I assume many countries have some sort of boilerplate loyalty oath they can bust out as needed, but it's pretty messed up that it's mandatory for kids on a daily basis and fetishizes the flag as an object. I am quite fond of my country, and I think there are a lot of worse places to live, but our history is pretty messed up and our views on what exactly constitutes freedom and democracy are not unquestionable just because some clever provincial elites came up with a halfway workable system in the late 1700s. I suppose it's marginally better to build a national cult out of institutions and symbols than individuals, but it's still a terrible idea to treat patriotism like religious dogma.
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