[Yahoshua]

Originally Posted by Frau_Phillips

Aren't these things just symbols for a bigger ideal? If I don't feel like pledging my alligence to a piece of cloth with stars and stripes every single morning, why am I labeled anti-American?

Question A: Yes.

Question B: This one I don't have a real answer for since each individuals' reasons may be different, but the short and general assumption they make is that you aren't on "their side."

Originally Posted by Frau_Phillips

I was late for class one day, and very worried about missing some instruction on a subject I have trouble with. The Pledge was on the loudspeaker, but I didn't pay much attention, I had bigger fish to fry. However, as I was walking at full speed, a large teacher who had planted herself in the middle of the Hall yelled "STOP" at me. Confused, I did. She wouldnt speak until the Pledge was over, and then I was taken to the front office and made to sit, missing the entire class because I was listening to a woman call me a commie in front of the entire administration.
(I failed the exam, too. Algebra sucks.)

More importantly: Did you respond? If you did, what did you say? If not, why didn't you? And if you could respond now, what would you say?

Originally Posted by Frau_Phillips

What I gathered from that was, the American dream is to stand, wasting time I could be using for more valuable things (like school) reciting the same words every day that I don't mean.

I understand though, that it goes both ways. If I burn the flag, shouting anti-American slurs, I'm being a bitch. But if my flag falls into a fire while I'm burning leaves, why should I even feel bad? It's the same with a bible. If I rip the pages out, speaking in tongues, yeah I might be posessed. But if I leave it in the car, should some religious nut key my car and post a note about my actions being worship to the devil?

Does anybody feel that way? Or am I really a devil posessed communist? Can I support an ideal without worshipping something that's material?

No you're not a communist (as far as I know), and you can support an ideal without "worshipping" a material object (something that I'd object to doing). For example: I recognize that it is the Bill of Rights that has guaranteed me the freedoms I exercise today (well, what's left of them that is), not a Red, White, and Blue flag.


What I seem to find in people like your teacher, is that they tend to have a deep-seated respect for the flag but don't fully understand what it is that has guaranteed them their freedoms (aka. blind patriotism).


I have alot of respect for the flag and what it represents, but I don't swear my allegiance to it (the flag being a piece of cloth), to the government (being corrupted as it is now), or to other people (who are fallible and make mistakes). So my position is that I treat the flag with the respect and dignity it has earned, but I'm not going to pledge my allegiance to it.


When I see a foreigner burn our flag, I make little note of it because that foreigner is my enemy and is against the fredoms I enjoy. What I don't understand is how someone who lives here in the United States can drag the flag on the street, burn it, call our soldiers "baby-killers", and still sleep soundly in a nation they consider their enemy. It also boggles the mind how the same people denigrate the same freedoms they currently enjoy (the Bill of Rights) but refuse to emigrate to what they would consider "greener pastures."


The same would apply for religion. I don't care what someone outside of my religion thinks of it, because my religion applies to me and those in my religious community. A debate and exchange of ideas I can understand, but baseless vilification is something I don't understand.

Hope this helps.