One Nation, Indivisible?

Those who disagreed with the court’s decision have argued that the pledge is voluntary in school anyway - that students who object can opt out. But besides the fact that schools have no business encouraging students to repeat religious phrases decided upon by the government, many schools violate the right of students to opt out. Last year, Principal Nancy Yoder of Glenn W. Stephens Elementary School in Madison, Wisconsin started to compile a list of the names of students who did not say the Pledge of Allegiance.

Two years ago in Walker County, Alabama, John Michael Hutto and Michael Holloman were punished, including a paddling, for refusing to say the pledge or salute the flag. Hutto is a Baptist and refused because he does not believe in worshipping idols, which just goes to show that separation of church and state is good for everyone, not just atheists. Michael Holloman stood silently with his fist in the air during the pledge. Holloman is now suing the Walker County school board in the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals for violation of his First Amendment free speech rights. (If you’d like to help participate in publicizing Michael Holloman’s efforts in court, please join the listserver by sending a blank email to MichaelHolloman-subscribe@topica.com ).

Reciting the pledge starts in elementary school. Do any elementary school kids even know what it means? If they do, it is unlikely that they learned it from school, or that they are taught about the ugly motivations of McCarthyism and religious bigotry that prompted a change in the pledge in 1954. Further, is a coercive display of patriotism indicative of genuine patriotism? A better measure of patriotism may be not whether or not a child or teenager says the pledge, but how fast s/he registers to vote and how many years s/he continues to do so after turning 18.

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