No offense: Pledge of Allegiance infringes on no one’s rights

Is anyone else sick of listening to people come up with reasons not to recite the Pledge of Allegiance — and to honor every religion other than the one professed by a majority of this nation’s population?

Another school announced this past week that the Pledge of Allegiance is too religiously focused to be recited in school — and that school officials are removing it from the morning agenda because its recitation might offend some of the students.

What??

Sometimes it honestly seems that some of the nation’s most brain-dead human beings are running some of the nation’s schools.

In an age when it is nearly impossible to get students to take any interest in their country’s future at all, why in the world would we tell them that the nation’s pledge of allegiance is an evil manifestation of the religious right?

Why wouldn’t we teach them the meaning behind the words and require them not only to know the pledge itself, but the history behind it as well?

The answer is simple: Political correctness.

The bottom line is that we are so afraid of offending one specific group, we are completely losing our own identity as Americans.

The Pledge of Allegiance is no more subversive than the national anthem or any other patriotic expression about what it means to be an American.

In fact, it teaches all kinds of important qualities — loyalty, patriotism, appreciation and responsibility as well as citizenship.

There is no way that could be considered anything but a good thing for children to learn.

And it should be a requirement for anyone who wants to be a citizen of this country.

There is nothing wrong with standing up for your right to believe — or to want to hold on to some aspects of your heritage if your origin is in another country.

But it is time that Americans stop apologizing for being Americans and tell those who have a disdain for this country’s principles and traditions that there are options other than remaining here.

There is nothing wrong with asking our children to know the pledge that honors those who fought to create this nation and those who continue to fight to keep it free.

And, by the way, there is nothing wrong with children of other faiths acknowledging the one that helped create this country — that is called tolerance.

Perhaps that is a lesson a few of the nation’s educators need to re-learn.

Published in Editorials on June 18, 2008 10:56 AM