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Of course, in their usual lethargy, the corporate
media has gone mostly back to old standbys; the Iraq
debacle, the Lakers getting stomped by a team full
of nobodies, and the godforsaken Scott Peterson trial.
Another story thrown into the media blender this Monday
was that Supreme Court threw out a challenge to the
“under God” portion of the Pledge of Allegiance.
On it’s face, this story has “Fox News”
written all over it; it’s easy to cast as a
“Let’s scare the grandmothers of America
with how the communists are trying to trying to scare
the schoolchildren away from Jesus” juggernaut.
Of course, looking at the actual facts of the case,
this suit was brought on by well-known atheist, Michael
Newdow, who (let’s face it) never met a television
interview that he didn’t like. He brought this
action on behalf of his daughter who, he claimed,
was gravely injured by forcing to recite God’s
name in her classroom every day. He does not have
custody of his daughter, he rarely sees her, and the
child’s mother has told various smiling conservative
talk show hosts that both she and the girl are Christian,
and don’t mind the pledge. As such, the court
threw the case out based on the technicality that
a father can’t sue in the name of a child not
in their custody.
I must say that this case does nothing to arouse
any particular passion in me. Even though I am a doubting
agnostic, I do acknowledge that a majority of Americans
are believers in God, so mentions of His name don’t
offend me. I don’t get offended and throw a
hissy fit every time a sneeze of mine is greeted with
a “God bless you” or when I hear a co-worker
utter “Thank God my girlfriend decided to get
that abortion.” I recognize that, whether I
like it or not, during the average American day, whether
I like it or not, God is going to get a fair share
of shout outs.
Don’t get me wrong here. How far the separation
of church and state goes and what role it is to play
in the daily lives of our children is an important
question, and one that our Supreme Court is eventually
going to need to address. However, I’m not sure
that this manufactured Pledge of Allegiance controversy
is the best vehicle to use to arrive at that definitive
answer.
It would seem that in the Age of Ashcroft, the ACLU
should have bigger battles to fight than whining over
two words of a thirty-one word pledge. That kind of
nitpicking makes progressives seem, to the larger
populace, slightly snotty. True, the words “under
God” weren’t a part of the original pledge;
they were added in the 50’s, as a lip servicing
part of Joe McCarthy’s shameful crusade, which
wasn’t exactly a beacon of Christian forgiveness.
Including a phrase that implies that those that don’t
believe in God can’t fully be American isn’t
the only problem. Hell, the very idea of pledging
allegiance to a symbolic piece of cloth, would strike
some of the more thoughtful of us as more than a little
bit silly. There’s nothing wrong with being
a proud American, but the flag isn’t what makes
our country great. America is a great place that offers
more variety and options than any place in the world
and Americans have much to be proud of —which
doesn’t mean that we owe absolute allegiance
to our symbols.
The Pledge also includes the dubious phrases “indivisible”
and “with liberty and justice for all.”
America is easily divisible. Any basic review of our
history would show us that; everything from the Civil
War to the Los Angeles riots to the 2000 elections.....
John Edwards ran an almost-successful run for the
Democratic nomination this year with the theme of
there being “two Americas.”
Americans are divided all the time — that’s
one of the greatest things about America. Division
gives us options, it allows us to pick sides. And
I doubt anyone harbors the illusion that all
Americans get liberty and justice. It’s a nice
ideal to aspire to, but it has no practical basis
in reality.
That part of the pledge should be amended to “and
liberty and justice for those that can afford it.”
I think that more adult Americans would feel comfortable
with the Pledge as a whole if it were updated so it
was realistically conditional and presented us with
some options. “I pledge allegiance to the flag
as long as it conveniences me to do so.” Or
“I pledge allegiance to the flag....until something
better comes along.” Such changes would make
the pledge more like American wedding vows.
Maybe I can jest this way because I haven’t
uttered the Pledge of Allegiance since I was in sixth
grade. You rarely hear adults recite it in public;
we don’t say it before court trials or sporting
events. The only people in this country that regularly
say the Pledge of Allegiance, as far as I know, are
schoolchildren. And, as a child, I don’t remember
the pledge, or it’s meaning, ever being fully
explained to us; it was just something that we were
supposed to say. Half the time, my smartass friends
and I showed our 6th grade maturity by substituting
the oath, “I pledge allegiance to the flag that
Michael Jackson is a fag.”
As accurate as this pronouncement was, it indicates
that we never treated our morning recitation of the
pledge as a valuable civics lesson. I, for one, think
that forcing kids to recite a pledge without explaining
to them what it means basically negates the whole
point of pledging allegiance to begin with.
What good is any pledge if only a captive audience
of children are willing to make it?
The Pledge of Allegiance, as a whole, is a waste
of America’s time. When conservative talk show
hosts wax eloquent about its meaning, some Americans
may feel better about themselves and their patriotism.
When I have to sit through such nonsense, I’m
always reminded of the kind of conservative social
experimentation that makes American children lag academically
behind the rest of the civilized world.
Perhaps both the Michael Newdows of the world and
the Christian “patriots” could stop conducting
a silly skirmish about two words in a pledge and instead
actually do something constructive to make the “liberty
and justice for all” ring true — and thereby
make America something truly worth our allegiance.
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