I agree that all the
Pledge of Allegiance is is
mindless repetition, but it has benefits. Right now, how many
people actually say the Pledge at your school? Maybe one or two per class. And how many in your
class
do you think will be involved in one way or another in the
government later on? Whether it be
running for
election, writing a letter to their
congressman, or simply
voting, I'd say very few. A couple of them will
at least vote the first time they can, but most will not again. Very, very few will even do the simple chore of
writing their opinion on an issue and mailing it to the editor of the
local newspaper. Heck, most probably
won't even read the news section of the
newspaper.
I feel by at least allowing (you aren't forced to say the pledge) kids to recite a few sentences, maybe it will
weave some
patriotism into their mind. Maybe they'll actually give a damn about their country and get
involved. We don't have to brainwash them to get them to care about our country, just make them care. If we just do nothing and simply hope they'll become inspired- well, they won't.
In a country where the
government actually posts
advertisements around the
schools to try and get
people to vote, we need all the patriotism we can get. What's next? The government's going to PAY US to
vote? Actually, I can see the
Republican and
Democratic parties paying people to vote in the future (if they haven't already started). People are just too apathetic nowadays- they don't care that people are being
massacred in
Kosovo or that the US is about to lose any means of hurting
China for their
human rights
violations. They only care about the latest media frenzy:
Monica Lewinsky,
Elian Gonzalez, etc. And how
much do they care about that? Enough to gossip and buy more magazines and watch more
CNN. Heaven
forbid they actually sit down and write a letter to someone!
As for
flag burning, I'm not opposed to flag burning, but I am against direct opposition to the government.
While you can go on all you want about an issue, such as
gun control or the
electoral college and how the
government's wrong about it, saying "the US government is evil and is too corrupt and needs to be
replaced!" does no good. We have a unique opportunity in our country, we can change how it operates. We
don't even need to be the majority, as long as you are a small group of strongly-opinionated and well
financed individuals you can get anything you want through
Congress! Anyway, there's much more
constructive ways of
voicing your opinion and getting results.
Good point about
religion in government. Even though our country was founded on
Christianity (our
fore-fathers being Christians that is), by no means do I think that it should be so intertwined with it. Myself
being
Christian, I would be offended if another
religion was being promoted in a country with
separation
of church and state. I don't have a problem with the government
respecting a religion (with a "Moment of Silence") even if the religion does makes up over 80% of its
population, but promoting it is a whole
different matter.