Jun. 28th, 2002 09:34 am
The Pledge, Revisited
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jdotmiThis is a cut and paste of a post I made at Neighborhood 99, a Sims community site I visit. I cross posted it at "The Good, The Bad, The Sims" and am now posting it here. There is an annotation in this to clarify something that won't make sense to those who are not able to view the thread at Neighborhood 99.
I posted this URL on my Live Journal, my EQ Guild, and on a forum that we won't discuss here in order to get discussion going. And this is the only place (well, other than other people's live journals) that I've seen an honest debate! ^_^ I love debate.
Anyrate. I'm actually going to post my thoughts on the issue now.
"Under God"
This nation was founded by Christians. In particular, it was founded by Christians who were persecuted in their homelands and who sought to leave for someplace which would allow them to practice their beliefs. It is highly ironic that now there are portions of that supposedly tolerant country that are as intolerant of others as their former homelands were intolerant of their ancestors. When the actual government of this nation was formed, the Church was specifically excluded from that government because it was the Church which had pushed them out of their former homes. The governments in Europe were, more or less, controlled by the Church. At the time this country was formed, there was a lot less religious diversity in the Americas than there is now.
Governments have to change. The United States government is not the same government that it was when this nation was formed. The citizens of the United States are not the same people they were when this nation was formed.
As Lady Del pointed out, God was not on our currency or in our pledge until very recent history. (S)He should not have been put there. **God was added to coin currency in 1864, to the pledge in 1954, and to bill currency in 1957.
There was one girl I went to school with named Natalie. Natalie's family were Jehova's Witnesses. She and I were friends for a few years, but we grew apart. Anyrate, she was the only person in the classes I was in who was exempted from saying the Pledge of Allegiance. She would just sit at her desk, legs crossed, arms folded, and glare at the chalk board during it. The rest of us had to stand and recite the pledge.
We had to.
Mull over that. "They can't force you to do it."
We had to.
You don't tell the teacher "I'm not going to do it because I don't want to." Yeah, right, that's going to work. The world doesn't work that way when your nine. Off to the principal's office for a lecture and a call home to your parents about how you're mouthing off to your teachers. Doesn't matter if they even tell your parents what it was about. You're in for a world of trouble.
I don't have any problem with the Pledge being recited in schools or at school events or at government events. I have a problem with the two words that were added to the pledge in the midst of the Red Scare. They aren't supposed to be there. Religion has no place in the United States Government. It has a large place in the private lives of United States citizens, and it should. I think religion is very important. Faith is one of the most powerful things a person can have. But my faith in God or my faith in the Goddess or my faith in Buddah should not be undermined by an overdone Pledge of Allegiance to a country that more than 50% of the citizens in that country can't stand the people actually pulling the strings in said country.
I posted this URL on my Live Journal, my EQ Guild, and on a forum that we won't discuss here in order to get discussion going. And this is the only place (well, other than other people's live journals) that I've seen an honest debate! ^_^ I love debate.
Anyrate. I'm actually going to post my thoughts on the issue now.
"Under God"
This nation was founded by Christians. In particular, it was founded by Christians who were persecuted in their homelands and who sought to leave for someplace which would allow them to practice their beliefs. It is highly ironic that now there are portions of that supposedly tolerant country that are as intolerant of others as their former homelands were intolerant of their ancestors. When the actual government of this nation was formed, the Church was specifically excluded from that government because it was the Church which had pushed them out of their former homes. The governments in Europe were, more or less, controlled by the Church. At the time this country was formed, there was a lot less religious diversity in the Americas than there is now.
Governments have to change. The United States government is not the same government that it was when this nation was formed. The citizens of the United States are not the same people they were when this nation was formed.
As Lady Del pointed out, God was not on our currency or in our pledge until very recent history. (S)He should not have been put there. **God was added to coin currency in 1864, to the pledge in 1954, and to bill currency in 1957.
There was one girl I went to school with named Natalie. Natalie's family were Jehova's Witnesses. She and I were friends for a few years, but we grew apart. Anyrate, she was the only person in the classes I was in who was exempted from saying the Pledge of Allegiance. She would just sit at her desk, legs crossed, arms folded, and glare at the chalk board during it. The rest of us had to stand and recite the pledge.
We had to.
Mull over that. "They can't force you to do it."
We had to.
You don't tell the teacher "I'm not going to do it because I don't want to." Yeah, right, that's going to work. The world doesn't work that way when your nine. Off to the principal's office for a lecture and a call home to your parents about how you're mouthing off to your teachers. Doesn't matter if they even tell your parents what it was about. You're in for a world of trouble.
I don't have any problem with the Pledge being recited in schools or at school events or at government events. I have a problem with the two words that were added to the pledge in the midst of the Red Scare. They aren't supposed to be there. Religion has no place in the United States Government. It has a large place in the private lives of United States citizens, and it should. I think religion is very important. Faith is one of the most powerful things a person can have. But my faith in God or my faith in the Goddess or my faith in Buddah should not be undermined by an overdone Pledge of Allegiance to a country that more than 50% of the citizens in that country can't stand the people actually pulling the strings in said country.
