BrookSpeak

“I pledge allegiance to the flag...� We’ve all had it burned into our brains since kindergarten. What about the part that says, “...one nation, under God...�? Not everyone follows the Christian faith, so why are we all expected to stand up and say it?

Every year since we started our educational careers, we’ve stood up and said the pledge without question; it’s second nature. However, as we blossomed into the young adults we are today, we learn more about the world around us and start to make our own decisions about what we believe in, and whether or not we still have the same beliefs in the things we learned in Sunday school.

Yet it never fails; each year there is at least one teacher that says you have stand up and say it. I’m no lawyer, but that must be violating some right of ours. Some even go as far as punishing you for not at least standing up to “show respect� for the other students that are.

Not to bash Christians, but it’s unfair that we’re all expected to pledge something we don’t all agree with. Although it’s common knowledge that Georgians as a whole are church-going people because we live in the epicenter of the Bible Belt, not everyone believes in God.

Even if it’s the most insignificant amount of Georgia students that are Atheist or some other religion, it should be taken into consideration that we do exist and saying the pledge violates what we little people believe.

Also, the “under God� part of the pledge wasn’t added until around the time of the Red Scare, and the American government didn’t want to seem communist or fascist in any way, so they added it as a way to separate themselves from the enemy.

So why not “one nation under Buddha� or “one nation under Allah�? After all, this is America, the world’s most diverse country. But apparently, not the most understanding when it comes to something as simple as whether or not to say the pledge.