Pledge Of Allegiance

“Everything the light touches is our kingdom,” says Mufasa to the young Simba in the famous Disney movie, The Lion King. The Pledge of Allegiance states that our kingdom, or nation, under God is indivisible, much like how the light touches almost everything in The Lion King, making its nation indivisible. After a court case about the Pledge in 2014, many people have been wondering whether or not it is worth it to say the Pledge every morning at school. Due to the use of “under God”, freedom of speech, and the forced patriotism onto citizens, the Pledge is unethical. Schools should not be able to force students to say the Pledge of Allegiance.

Every weekday starts the same for students, the compulsory saying of the Pledge of Allegiance before

Martha C Nussbaum is a Chicago University of Law alumni who has taken her side on the debate. “I don’t think that America is ‘under God’ any more than Israel, or India, or Britain, or Germany, or Syria, or, for that matter, the Soviet Union in the 1950s,” (Nussbaum). “Under God” is a point that needed to be proven half a century ago, not one that needs to be proven today. With this addition of religion to a so called indivisible nation, contradicts itself due to the fact that it splits the nation into the believers and nonbelievers. Also, the words “under God” physically gets in the way of the original phrase “One nation indivisible” The addition of the words “under God” happened to Francis Bellamy’s original version of the Pledge in 1954 in order to differentiate America from the Communists as a result of The Cold War. Hemant Mehta is the voice behind the YouTube channel, The Atheist Voice and the founder of The

Nationalism has been shown all over the world for many centuries, it is even an underlying cause of World War 1. While patriotism is supported heavily, forced patriotism is not patriotism at all. Meredith Jessup, an author for The Blaze news stories conducts, “Patriotism is an emotion that comes from within, not something that can be levied by government. Without that personal sense of patriotism, the Pledge of Allegiance is just a poem that doesn’t even rhyme,” (Jessup). In order to be patriotic one has to put their whole heart into loving this country. When someone is forcing another to be patriotic by making them recite words they do not mean, it cannot be considered patriotism. It is up to the person to say if he or she loves America and stays nationalistic by proving his or her passion in many different ways. Some may argue that when required participate in nationalistic activities, it increases their likeliness to be patriotic. Others may argue back with an idea similar to that of David Meeks. Meeks is a Arkansas State Representative who states, “I believe patriotism is a value, it must be developed over time. I challenge the belief that requiring students to recite the Pledge over their objections increases their level of patriotism. Rather, I would say it stokes a young person's natural tendency to rebel,” (Meeks).