The Solemn Oath: Understanding the Pledge of Allegiance

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Have you ever thought about what it truly means to be a patriotic American? Does a patriotic American simply support his country no matter what the cause; or does this patriot passionately reprimand his country’s injustices, no matter how small or big? Consider the Pledge of Allegiance. This oath of loyalty binds us as Americans and should unite us. The keyword being unite, for the essay I’ll respond to thinks otherwise. Indeed, Gwen Wilde is against the inclusion of a certain phrase: “Under God.” Her primary belief being that the phrase in the Pledge is, as she puts it, “needlessly divisive.” Is she right? I believe she is, for the Pledge as it stands today is discriminatory and you’ll soon find out why.
We first look to Gwen’s essay entitled “Why the Pledge of Allegiance Should Be Revised.” The main idea is her rejection of the words “Under God” included in the Pledge of Allegiance. She adamantly believes it to be divisive, and even un-American. With this in mind, she begins her essay by providing us with a little history on the matter. It’s explained to us that the Pledge did not originally include the aforementioned phrase, and in fact contained no reference to any deity. As Gwen believes, the inclusion of the phrase is “an odd addition indeed to a Nation that is said to be ‘indivisible’.” She questions what it means to be a patriotic American. According to her, patriotic Americans aren’t all religious. An important note to her, as she then goes on mention how silence during the Pledge can lead to accusations of being unpatriotic. These accused are, as Gwen says, “somehow not fully an American, maybe even un-American.” Yet her argument is not so much about the constitutionality of the Pledge; an assumption she specifically r...

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...rent religious ideals and the Pledge should reflect this.
Overall the Pledge must be revised in order to be a truly patriotic oath. I share Gwen’s sentiments and believe the pledge of allegiance should be a religiously neutral and all inclusive oath. One in which every single Americas from every walk of life can participate in; a Pledge to take pride in regardless of your religious beliefs or otherwise. We must remember our Nation was founded on the basis of unity. Even though religion was used to unite us in the past, in the future our diversity should be used to unite us instead. For America is a rich and diverse country yet in that diverseness we share common American traits. I challenge the notion that the Pledge is of trivial importance for the opposite is true. The Pledge of Allegiance needs to be the Oath that binds us, despite our religious beliefs.

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