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It is remarkable that the official US motto is "in God we trust". The government is supposed to be secular! And even more, that students are compelled to say the pledge of allegiance (including the phrase "one nation, under God") every morning. This brainwashes feeble minds into subservience to their country, which I think is a form of propaganda to mold American children into chauvinistic adults who will be willing to join the army and fight blindly to defend the concept of "United States". I think sensible people should urge their children to exercise their First Amendment right to freedom of expression and religion to OPT OUT of saying the pledge. As a child I saw how ridiculous the practice was, but was afraid that I would be castigated if I had sat down throughout that morning ritual. Now, I see that I was pressured to being a sheep and accepting it despite how ridiculous it seemed. These tactics are powerful and we must recognize them and refuse to submit to social pressures to act in asinine ways! For example --
during World War I, the British government employed women in cities to belittle men who chose not to fight, basically calling them wussies. And the sad thing is that it was effective!
I have a major qualm about how many people there are who continually try to make issues of things that 95% of the population are completely happy with. Go find some other pathetic ax to grind.
I never want to live in another country again
The sweetest words I ever heard after a 5 year absence was welcome home huck
Never again
3 things Americans don't know
Abuse
Poverty
Corruption
They say they know but your dirty is clean to other countries
It is remarkable that the official US motto is "in God we trust". The government is supposed to be secular! And even more, that students are compelled to say the pledge of allegiance (including the phrase "one nation, under God") every morning. This brainwashes feeble minds into subservience to their country, which I think is a form of propaganda to mold American children into chauvinistic adults who will be willing to join the army and fight blindly to defend the concept of "United States". I think sensible people should urge their children to exercise their First Amendment right to freedom of expression and religion to OPT OUT of saying the pledge. As a child I saw how ridiculous the practice was, but was afraid that I would be castigated if I had sat down throughout that morning ritual. Now, I see that I was pressured to being a sheep and accepting it despite how ridiculous it seemed. These tactics are powerful and we must recognize them and refuse to submit to social pressures to act in asinine ways! For example --
during World War I, the British government employed women in cities to belittle men who chose not to fight, basically calling them wussies. And the sad thing is that it was effective!
1. Since 1943 it has not been legally required for students to say "The Pledge". It is not required that they stand. It is only required that they do not interrupt others who are saying the Pledge. If you have school officials that are requiring students to say the Pledge, you need to take them to task for that. If it remains a problem, I would call the ACLU.
2. Having said that, a little patriotism by Americans isn't a bad thing.
3. What has what the British did in World War II got to do with anything much 70 years later, at least in this context?
...
I suppose you are the type who attends a sporting event and doesn't stand, keeps talking or playing on your phone when the Star Spangled Banner is played. ...
Freedom of speech includes the right not to speak.
And frankly, when I attend college basketball games and other such events, many of the men who are singing the loudest are just being rowdy and are already half in the bag. I don't see that as being particularly respectful or patriotic.
it should be self-evident that the country is great and that you shouldn't need to be drilled into thinking that--it should be obvious. If it requires drilling with the pledge of allegiance, you're not learning that it's good, you're learning to submit. Our country was built on the idea of questioning authority, not blindly adhering to established laws. Symbolism doesn't matter.
In fact, if you asked kids to explain the Pledge, phrase by phrase, I'm not sure they could do a very good job of it...even though they've said it thousands of time.
“But you know as well as I, patriotism is a word; and one that generally comes to mean either my country, right or wrong, which is infamous, or my country is always right, which is imbecile.”
We should put everything else on the back-burner to address these two enormous issues. I can't believe people can even sleep at night. Dare I say this is even a greater issue than knowing how many licks it takes to get to the center of a tootsie pop.
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