Assignment 4 - Gloria Dietz

"One nation under god, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all." As students at Henry Clay High School, we've all said these words, pledging allegiance to the flag, freedom, and our country as a whole.

Or have we?

Being the stereotypical rebellious teenager, many high school students have refused to stand up, and say the pledge of allegiance.  At first, I thought this was out of laziness or the need to not conform to the group, but further study found something more.  Many of them claimed that the pledge was religiously affiliated or wasn't actually a show of loyalty to the country, as many teacher claimed.

They cited the "nation under god" mentioned in the pledge as not keeping with our government's idea of separation of church and state. They believed that they should not be forced to say this somewhat religious part of the pledge. Others thought that the pledge's supposed purpose: a show of loyalty to the U.S., wasn't actually being achieved by the pledge.  Loyalty by definition is an unspoken trusting relationship a person has with another person or entity; loyalty cannot be forced, nor should it have to be displayed to know it's there. Forcing people to show loyalty through the pledge, isn't loyalty at all.
          These arguments weighed in on me, and I started to recite the pledge of the allegiance less coherently each time, eventually phasing out to the point where I wouldn't even stand. This caused a few issues with my teacher, who wanted us all to stand and say the pledge, but I was determined to uphold my values. After a couple weeks of not standing and some mild scolding from my teacher, I returned to doing the full-fledged-pledge. I realized that upholding my values, appealing to logic, and questioning everything around me were all important, but on such a small scale, on such a trivial issue didn't really matter in the grand scheme of life. I decided to always give my opinions, uphold my values, and question the world around me, but to take a stand on the big issues that were most important and relevant to me.