Pledge of Allegiance (to the United States) – how has this become so controversial? Across the blogosphere, we’ve seen college groups, city councils, Democrat committees, local group, all reject saying what is “I continue to pledge my fealty to the United States.”
I’ll add, not to a given person, not to a given institution, but the idea of the United State standing for certain ideals. The military pledges an oath to protect those ideals as designed in the form of the US Constitution. If you are, or have been, an elected official, you have as well.
These college kids – not so much:
“Out of everyone we interviewed, 18 out of 31 people didn’t know or botched the pledge. Sad!”
How hard can this really be?
“I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one Nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”
Out of “hearing”, out of mind?
What does it say about the state of education and its view of patriotism that most of these “future leaders” can’t? I’m not talking just missing (or messing up) a word or two (although important!) but the idea of screwing it up so badly? Look, I understand that part of what makes America especially great is our Freedom of Speech as well as its opposite (the Freedom of NO Speech of one wishes to say nothing). That said, we’ve been seeing a breakdown, via polling, of the younger sets no longer believing in the US and its Exceptionalism built on ideas and not a place or an ethnicity. If you can’t even say the pledge, where’s the importance of knowing its fundamentals?
This is just one more example of how little our Civics means anymore – not knowing that, then anything contrary to it may seen to be better when one can’t contrast it with others (re: the rise of Socialism in the youngest generation even as some don’t even know what it means). Words have meanings but when you don’t know and understand what those words mean…
(H/T: Daily Wire)
