"I pledge allegiance..."

[Sara]

[QUOTE][i]Originally posted by PiroMunkie [/i]
[B][SIZE=1]I'm standing up for what I believe by sitting down :rolleyes:[/SIZE] [/B][/QUOTE]

[QUOTE][i]Originally posted by Crazy White Boy [/i]
[B] I think I saluted it because it represents a country that actually gives people the right to sit down. [/B][/QUOTE][FONT=century gothic]It's rather strange....you two seem to be saying the same thing, yet react in entirely different ways. I just think that's cool.

I [i]did[/i] go to a public school for the first few years of my school career. They taught us the words to the Pledge. Of course, you learned it in Kindergarten, when the words mean nothing. "Allegiance"..."Republic"..."Indivisible"... Big words for little kids.

By the time you're old enough to know the definitions of the words--whether that be second, fifth, or eighth grade--you've been saying them for so long, it's just automatic. So maybe your whole life you've been saying this without ever really taking in what it means.

Maybe, if you think about it, it means something really deep and special to you. Maybe, if you think about it, it means nothing.

Maybe you've been reciting something that you just now realize is a culmination of what America means to you. Maybe you've been saying something for your whole life that you totally disagree with.

I don't know, it's just something I've been pondering since we said the Pledge as a school after September 11.

It was strange to me...most people had probably not said it since early grade school. Everyone was rusty, straining to remember the words.

It just made me wonder, I guess.

-Cera[/FONT]

[Shy]

[SIZE=1]I recite the pledge of allegiance, not because I am trying to push a certain religous belief on anyone but because it is my way of showing my support for my country.

There is a person in my Math class who is an Atheist and still recites it. When the line comes up... he just skips it as if the line was never there at all. You don't have to believe in God to show your support for the United States Government. This is a free nation and by exercising your right [i]not[/i] to say that line it shows that you are just as American as the person who does say it.

[i]"...with liberty and justice for all."[/i][/SIZE]

[PiroMunkie]

[SIZE=1]For those (both American and not) who don't know what's behind the flag here's an excerpt from a book called [i]Our Flag[/i] published in 1989 by the House of Representatives...

[QUOTE]"The colors of the pales (the vertical stripes) are those used in the flag of the United States of America; White signifies purity and innocence, Red, hardiness & valour, and Blue, the color of the Chief (the broad band above the stripes) signifies vigilance, perseverance & justice." Also this from a book about the flag published in 1977 by the House of Representatives...

"The star is a symbol of the heavens and the divine goal to which man has aspired from time immemorial; the stripe is symbolic of the rays of light emanating from the sun."[/QUOTE]

I pledge allegiance to the flag of The United States of America. And to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God indivisable with liberty and justice for all.

There, now they're both in one post :)[/SIZE]

[Deedlit]

well, it is good to say the pledge, but the people should also have an option if they should say it or not. If they don't want to say it, they can sit down and go to sleep or something.