By Lauren F. McCullogh
The Pledge of Allegiance has been an integral part of my school career. The president of the Student Council at my elementary school barked it over the loudspeaker every morning. There was never a choice whether I would say it or not. Everyone said it. Teachers probably gave detentions if every student didn’t enunciate every last consonant of the Pledge (they could do that – it was Catholic school). I was never really bothered by the cult-like morning recitations, though at six, I was not as crotchety as I am now.
Yes, I was one of those kids that liked saying the Pledge. I was into anything that seemed grown-up. I had astounding aural memorization skills at a young age, so I never had trouble remembering the words to the Pledge. But it was the hand thing that always tripped me up. I think that I probably put my left hand over my right “heart” until I was in fourth grade. Even now when the Star Spangled Banner plays at a baseball game, I really have to think twice about which hand goes where. When I feel the thump thump, I know I’ve got it right.
Since 1954, school children all over the country have probably had similar experiences with the Pledge of Allegiance. They know they have to say it, if not by law, then by peer pressure. They know all the words, though they really don’t understand the meaning. And they know they say it every morning, rain or shine, all the way through the public school system. Actually, the Pledge of Allegiance is quite the testament to our education system: know the words, know when to say them, don’t think twice about comprehension.
Is it a prayer? Is it “an acknowledgment?” The justices are still out.Still, it seems pretty obvious to me – keeping “under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance is just another example of hypocritical American policy. We purport to be the almighty Democracy, with our church and state just as separate as can be. We criticize and invade countries that have state religions – we call them terrorists. But at the end of the day, what makes us so different from “them?”
We’re secular, well, unless you look at our currency and our oaths. We keep religion out of government, except that we fund crazy Christian church groups to educate American youth about sex and AIDS. And there is that “more than friends” relationship between our president and the Jesus-loving fundamentalists…
In the ACLU’s friend-of-the-court brief for Elk Grove Unified School District v. Newdow, President Bush is quoted as saying in a 2002 letter to Hawaiian religious leaders that “when we pledge allegiance to One Nation under God, our citizens participate in an important American tradition of humbly seeking the wisdom and blessing of Divine Providence.”
Just an acknowledgement?
Dr. Michael Newdow has single handedly backed the God-lovers of America into a corner. Those who are a bit more politically savvy than Bush are sputtering “under God” excuses, but in the end, God is God and God in government is not democracy.Thank G*d for Michael Newdow, an atheist, yes, but an American nonetheless.
