The Pledge of Allegiance is doing irreparable harm
to the minds and hearts of America’s schoolchildren.
So alleges an ACLU lawsuit against the State of
Colorado for its new law requiring the daily
recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance in public
schools.
This time, it isn’t just about “One Nation Under
God.” Now, the American Civil Liberties Union wants
to get rid of the whole pledge. On August 12, the
ACLU filed suit in federal district court on behalf
of “students and teachers throughout the state” who
seem to be offended by the notion of the republic
for which the flag stands, unity, liberty, and
justice for all.
Mark Silverstein, Legal Director of the ACLU of
Colorado, exclaimed, “Public expressions of belief
in the ideals of liberty and justice should be
voluntary, not coerced. By forcing individuals to
pledge allegiance, the Colorado law violates the
fundamental freedoms that the American flag is meant
to represent.”
In context of public schools, the ACLU’s “coercion”
argument is quite silly. When I took a French class
in high school, I had to answer my teacher’s
questions in French, not Spanish. When each student
had to present a book report in English class, there
was no option to sit out of the activity or to
deliver a rebellious lecture on the evils of reading
books.
Yet no one is coerced into saying the Pledge of
Allegiance under the current Colorado law. There
isn’t a Colorado State Patrol division stationed in
classrooms on the lookout for unpatriotic students
who refuse to stand to salute the flag every
morning. No one is being held at gunpoint until they
recite the Pledge with proper enunciation and oral
punctuation. In fact, students can bring in parent
notes to excuse them from reciting the pledge. And
religious objectors like Jehovah Witnesses are
easily allowed to refrain from saying the creed.
But according to Dr. Allen Chen from University of
Denver College of Law, the ACLU’s lead attorney in
the lawsuit, the plaintiffs are not offended by the
Pledge of Allegiance on religious grounds. “Our
clients rely on objections of conscience that are
separate from religious concerns. By requiring that
they recite the pledge despite their objections, the
Colorado law violates our clients’ free speech
rights.”
In other words, the ACLU and its plaintiffs are just
plain anti-American and they want to get rid of the
Pledge for the sake of getting rid of the Pledge.
One anti-American plaintiff is Miss Keaty Gross, a
senior at George Washington High School in Denver
County. Miss Gross claims, “I am a patriotic person,
but I believe that part of our freedom in the United
States is to express our support of our country in
different ways. There should not be only one way to
express your patriotism.”
Whatever version of the Pledge of Allegiance Miss
Gross is familiar with must state that any other
forms of patriotic expression other than the Pledge
are strictly prohibited. And in her imaginary world
as a victimized slave chained to the flag pole of
oppression, Miss Gross would commit civil
disobedience against a non-existent clause in the
Pledge by sitting and protesting the American flag
while her classmates salute it, thereby expressing
what she calls “patriotism.”
Or perhaps Miss Gross means that she would prefer to
pledge her allegiance to something other than
America. Like the United Nations, or a statue of
Karl Marx, or Marx’s legacy known as the ACLU.
The Pledge of Allegiance to America is a quick and
easy routine at the start of each day that lays in
the memory of each student a summary of fundamental
American ideals.
Such a simple expression of patriotism is not only
harmless, it echoes the historical mission of
America’s education system to cultivate good
citizenship.
To the drugged up, warped senses of the ACLU,
citizenship is a rotting, archaic concept. National
unity and patriotism are outmoded values. Duty,
honor, and country are the relics of dead generals
that have yet to be sued out of school history books
in some not-too-distant lawsuit campaign. Liberty is
to be replaced with license and justice with
favoritism to the devoid of truth.
And then the red, white, and blue will cease to wave
because of neglect. It will be the ACLU that
presides over the final lowering of shredded Old
Glory if ever that day comes.
Thus we
ought to preserve the Pledge of Allegiance while we
have the chance. We should be working to ensure that
every state requires the daily recitation of the
Pledge in our schools.
Let’s join together to pledge our support for the
Pledge of Allegiance.
.
Hans Zeiger, 18, is an Eagle Scout and president of
the Scout Oath Coalition. He is chairman of
Washington Young Americans for Freedom and a Seattle
Times columnist. He can be contacted at
hanszeiger@yahoo.com.