Joseph Wolf
18 August 2008
“God said love thy neighbor, but only if their Christian” (Brandy, 2007)
In, response to the article written by Rochelle Riley, where she feels that keeping the words “under God.” In her article, she says that we should keep the words “under god.” In our pledge, because that is how our founding fathers would have wanted it, that we should preserve history, but maybe Rochelle should, do her research more next time. Because the fact of the matter is we have had times in this country were, we did not have the words “under God” in our pledge. It took us until 1954 to make the words “under God” in our pledge official. May I ask you this Miss Riley, was God too busy to be in our pledge, until 1954, or maybe God did want to be in our pledge until 1954, maybe we were not worthy until 1954? She feels that this country was founded by God. Really, Miss Riley, because I really think the first pilgrims that landed on Plymouth Rock had a little to do with it. Please correct me if I am wrong Miss Riley, I was never good at history but maybe George Washington and Thomas Jefferson had a little to do with it, and maybe just maybe Ben Franklin had something to do with it. I never once read the bible and read anything were God first landed on the United States. Maybe I skipped that chapter. Can you refresh my memory where that is? If you really want to preserve history maybe you should look in the Constitution of the United states of America, I encourage you to read the entire thing, it is truly breathtaking. However, for me and for your readers please look at the first amendment. If you do not feel that you have to read it, I will have one of our founding fathers sum it up for you “If there is any fixed star in the Constitutional Constellation it is that no official high or petty, can prescribe what shall be orthodox, in nationalism, religion, politics, or any other matters of opinion.” (Jackson, 1776)
I do not believe in God. (Kimoto) ,I feel that “under God” should not be in the pledge. If we do not say it will god punish us? I know mine won’t but I’ am sure your god might. I cannot worship something or for that matter acknowledge something, that man made up. I have always felt it is like saying “under Santa”. I have never been inspired by saying “under God”. It has been and will always be a passive ritual.
From this point on, if you believe in god, this essay will be nothing but lies and it shall be scrutinized thoroughly for what you feel to be inaccuracies. If you do not believe in god, I say join the club and enjoy the reading. To make you people who do believe in keeping “under God” I will like to mention this to further have you discriminate against my paper.“ Your religious deductions are raising my taxes. Worship anything or anyone you please, but don’t make me pay for it!”(O’hair, 1993)
I can recall when I was a child growing up in Gardnerville, NV I would go to my elementary school, C. C, Menely. The first thing I could remember when walking in to school is seeing the great flag of the United States flailing in the wind to the backdrop of the Sierra Nevada Mountains. I remember thinking this would be a great painting, that has the timeless beauty of the Mona Lisa or the Screamer. I also remember thinking, wow we have one of the most beautiful and eloquent flags in the world that has a myriad of beutiy. I remember referring to it as the great stars and stripes. I did not know at the time, maybe because I was only six, that millions of soldiers died throughout history and many will die in the future for that flag. All I knew is that flag represents everything that this country was, is, and will be in the future.
I would walk into my class, and every morning around eight o’clock my class and I would wait for the announcement from the principal to say the pledge of allegiance to the United States of America. My entire class and I would stand up and some would proudly say the pledge and some would stand up with about as much enthusiasm as if they were next in line for a root canal. My teacher would guide our developing minds through the pledge of alligence. They would first say “put your right hand over your heart kids”. I would say this pledge to a flag that was draping next to a clock that never seemed to turn three o’clock in the right side of the room. I remember saying “I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic to which it stands, one nation under God with liberty and justice for all.” Now, when I was a kid going through elementary school, I did not really think much of the words I was saying. I really did not know much about the words so I did not know that the phrase liberty and justice for all, is a blind statement. Nor did I realize that I was saying “one nation under God”. To me saying the pledge of allegiance was more of a passive experience, sort of a ritual as a waking up and brushing your teeth.
When we are saying the pledge of allegiance, what are we really saying? We are saying that we pledge our alliance to the United States. Which is fine with me, the United States has been my motherland for 22 years now. This country has treated me like a newborn baby so I will gladly pledge my alliance to it. However, I have a hard time saying under God, I never understood why we have to say that. I had a hard time saying that because of my beliefs, not my beliefs in God, but why do we need to ask God to bless this country? Aren’t we a good enough country that God will just bless naturally?
Now granted, this country was founded by Christians yearning to breathe free, and worship whatever god they believed in. The first immigrants believed in this so much that they put it in our constitution, which states, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise therof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government of grievance.” So right there, written so eloquently and butifully, it clearly states that church and state should be and will be separate and government cannot pick your god for you, while it clearly states that government cannot pick your god it also says that you may worship whatever a god you feel that best suites you. Yet, immediately when you say the phrase “under God,” to salute a government; that grants you the freedom to choose whatever god you want to worship has a phrase that directly contradicts one of our core bills of rights. Now I am not saying that no other law in our law books has contradictions. We will always have contradictions in our law books, and our compulsive rituals.
The main reason I find it contradictory is, the phrase “under god” really only refers to a select group of people. Those who choose to believe in God. What about those people who do not believe in God? Are they less American because they choose not to believe in God, or for that matter, let us take into contrast homosexual people in high school? The religious people would want them to say under God. Yet, on the other hand and sometimes in the same breathe they say to these young homosexual people. That they ought to feel ashamed of their sexuality. They should be embarrassed of who they are. Therefore, we are asking these young and sometimes confused young people to acknowledge a god. When in theory many religious people would say, that god hates them because they are homosexual. Imagine what kind of message that sends to these developing young minds. Imagine how confused the young person would feel. If they were saying under God every day to a god that says that their life style is a shame and embarrassment.
I know people would say you do not have to say “under God” in the pledge while the rest of the class is saying it. That is correct by your birthright as an American, and that is a good argument, but we must consider that kids who are saying this are young, around the age of 4 and 12 are under a lot of stress to fit in. So they do not have to say “under God” by their birthright as an American, but they are still required to say it because of peer pressure. I, remember when I was in Gardnerville, NV, some kids did not say the part “under God” in the pledge. I personally thought nothing of it and some of my friends would think nothing of it. However, some kids in my class would not associate with the kids that did not say the phrase “under God.” They would even go as far as poking fun at them and sometimes start harsh rumors. They would as far as giving them the “stink eye.” Just imagine how that would feel, if you were a little boy or girl, in elementary school and did not say the phrase “under God,” how the kids would torment and tease you. That old phrase kids is true kids can be so cruel. There are also cases where some kids who do not opt to say the phrase under god are asked to leave the room. Do you know what kind of message this sends? You are segregated from the other students to make you feel like an outcast. Since kids do not want to feel as an outcast in their young development, they reluctantly say this phrase. Therefore, this would counter-act their beliefs. Moreover, in a great nation that was founded on having your own beliefs, they should not have to give up one of their beliefs to fit in.
There have been a myriad of court cases going both ways where the Supreme Court upheld the Schools decision to include “under God” in the pledge and a myriad of court cases saying that putting “under God in the pledge is a violation of our first amendment right. Therefore, this issue has been contested since the birth of this great nation. One thing though, the Supreme Court made the words “under God” official in the pledge of allegiance official in 1954.
Before the pledge of allegiance that we say today was even in place there were multiple versions of the pledge. That did not even have the words “under God” in it. It took the United states until 1954 to adopt the words “under God” in our pledge. So why is it now in this day and age where people are more educated, people have more freedom do we want to keep the pledge the same when it has had numerous edits to its name.
If you ask me, the pledge has never been awe-inspiring. They have been blind words that I have said when I was in elementary school, if we have a pledge why we do not make it meaningful and awe-inspiring. I feel we should change the pledge one more time, to what it says on the statue of liberty. If we are to pledge are to pledge something it might as well be something meaningful. I, feel we that the pledge should be changed again but this time make it say this.“ I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands; I pledge to the tired the poor and the huddled masses yearning to breathe free, one nation indivisible, one nation for the people by the people and with liberty and justice for all.”
I am first and foremost have been a man of science a man of proof, and in some retrospect a person that likes proof, someone who doesn’t like something without concrete evidence. I leave you with this to think on, I am a realist “how do you prove that God doesn’t exist?” you ask. “How do you prove that Santa Cluase doesn’t exist?’ I counter. (Kimoto, 1999)
