How I Convinced My Teacher To Let Me Sit During The Pledge: Now More Than Ever

Great Debates
1

Earlier this year, I was in my sophmore year of high school when I posted about how I had gotten my teacher to let me omit standing during the flag pledge.
This year, after the attacks, I found myself having to reinforce my beliefs. Beliefs so strong, I refused to stand during the national flag pledge, staged weeks after the attacks.

My last thread about this turned into a debate, so I’ll save you all the trouble and put this in GD to begin with. I’ll make a statement for everyone to debate.

The following is the actual letter I wrote to my english teacher, that got her to agree to let me sit during the pledge. It includes the letter written by me, last school year that can be found here. [Disclaimer] The contents of this letter is fact mixed with my opinion and views, I do not mean everyone to take as the way things are. [/Disclaimer]

Dear Ms. ******
In light of recent events and the push toward more patriotic activities, I write this letter. From the first day in this class, you stated that although you would not force us to say the pledge, you would make us stand up for it. Upon hearing this, I raised my hand and politely said that I would not. You responded with a quizzical look and brushed it off. Rather than cause a spectacle in front of the class, I choose to write you this letter, outlining my actions and the reasons behind them.

I encountered this same problem last year. Granted, due to the attacks, this is a whole new topic. Here, is my slightly altered letter of the past school year:

Dear Mrs. *****,
For the whole school year now, you have asked me to stand for the flag salute and I refuse, when I refuse you force me to stand with the threat of being sent to the office for failure to obey a teacher, whereupon I stand.
I truly believe that you lost sight of what the very pledge you want me to acknowledge, means.
Let’s go over this word by word.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

My first complaint is the words “under God”. “Under God” was placed into the pledge during the McCarthy era as a way to sniff out communists. Secondly, the Constitution states “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion…”; I do not see why anyone should force me to respect an establishment of religion, so we will take “under God” out. We now have:

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Now, by forcing me to stand you are taking away my civil liberties. You always say that I should stand for the men who laid down their life for me to live in this great country. I do not find it just that those men laid down their lives so I could not exercise my civil liberties, the very civil liberties that they died for. Now, I will take out “with liberty and justice for all.” because apparently that is not the case. We now have:

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation indivisible.

Indivisible, one nation indivisible. Before the attacks, I found the United States to be cracked into several backbiting factions. I still see that today, although it is masked by respect for those who died and the sudden outburst of patriotism. We are divisible, we have been in the past and the yearning to destroy a foreign enemy, does not remove yearning to destroy domestic ones. For this reason, I shall remove “one nation indivisible.” We now have:

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation.

I pledge allegiance to no one. I will not pledge allegiance to a flag nor will I pledge allegiance to republic. This is my choice and those are my rights. We will now take out “I pledge allegiance to the flag…” We now have:

One nation.

One nation. That is about the only part I would agree to. We are one nation, it pretty much stops there for me.

One nation.

Now, I must approach a different subject. Not only am I expected to stand for the pledge, I am expected to wave my flag and get behind this country; This country verging on orwellian and support it through all of its actions.

Habeus Corpus has been stripped for those detained by the INS, we’re letting our privacy be picked away at with nothing but a smile, racial profiling has become commonplace. Being born to a man who had to flee his country during a bloody revolution, for the simple fact that they would have killed him for being a teacher, it is my instinct to not pledge my allegiance to a flag and country who take these type of actions.

Although many people have found being patriotic a means of remembering those who died and the heroes of this country, I choose other means of doing so. I stared at my television in awe for 17 hours straight, watching it all unfold. I shed my tears, I felt my grief deep in my heart for the dead. Although I am not willing to pledge allegiance to this country and its flag, it does not make me any less of a patriot than those who do. At least, not in this country.

Turning on the television the other day, I was hit with the visions of the new generation being indoctrined. They, like I, being made to believe that all in this country will be okay so long as we get behind it. Seeing Congress sing “God Bless America” did not bother me because they have the right to sing, say, dance anything they want, this is America. When the wall between church and state is so easily broken down; When elementary school children are made to sing “God Bless America” or when posted that say “God Bless America” [which I later wrote an article for the school newspaper about, which got them taken down] are put up around our school, that is when I get bothered. This is not a popular opinion, but it is a constitutional one. Voltaire must have had someone like me in mind when he said “I do not agree with what you say but, I will fight to the death your right to say it.”

Again, I believe that excersizing my rights is being far more patriotic than taking those rights away from someone. I could make a comparison to being made to stand for the pledge to being made go to church everyday, but not having to believe in God. I hope that making this a private issue is far more convinient than taking up class time.

Once more, I got a teacher to understand and look at things from someone else’s perspective.

What’s my question for a debate? I don’t know, it just seems to end up in one. I suppose it can be that exercizing my rights, even in the face of mass opposition, is being a true patriot.

2

I congratulate you, MERC, and do not intend to in any way detract from your principled stance when I say that I think any teacher faced with such an intelligent and passionate plea would be a fool to argue about it.

You pick your battles, and if you have a choice you don’t pick the big ugly hairy ones. :slight_smile:

3

In the last thread I supported your stance, and I still do for the most part. I have two quibbles with your letter above:

  1. You have a superfluous comma.

  2. You are mistaken that this country verges on Orwellian.

Other than those two, you hit the nail on the head.

4

Merc, sometimes I lie awake at nights, staring up at the ceiling, wishing I had but a tenth of your inherrent genius.

5

You certainly sound sincere, Mercutio. I admire the sensible way that you sought your goal – by a well-written letter to your teacher.

However, I don’t see your action as truly patriotic. Your letter observes certain respects in which you feel the US is imperfect in fulfilling its own philosophic goals. Your attitude appears to be, “The US must be perfect or I won’t participate.” However, when you compare the US to most other countries, we have achieved a level of freedom that’s worth preseving. Furthermore, you might consider that your POV may not always be correct. Finally, note that the US has proper ideals, even if we don’t always fully achieve them. It would be reasonable to participate to show respect for the ideals of the US.

When the country is at war, it’s particularly important to encourage citizens to act for the good of the country. At this moment, American and British soldiers are risking their lives in order to make you and me safer. Encouraging public service is one reason we focus on patriotic symbols. IMHO, your decision to sit during the Pledge of Allegiance tends to have the opposite effect. BTW do you ever think about enlisting?

Mercutio, you come across as a thoughtful and concerned person, and I wish you well.

6

december: When the country is at war, it’s particularly important to encourage citizens to act for the good of the country.

Check.

At this moment, American and British soldiers are risking their lives in order to make you and me safer.

Check. (Or at least, that’s why they think they’re doing it, and though I may disagree about whether what they’re doing is actually accomplishing that, I’m no less grateful to them for it.)

*Encouraging public service is one reason we focus on patriotic symbols. *

Check.

*IMHO, your decision to sit during the Pledge of Allegiance tends to have the opposite effect. *

No check. “Focusing on patriotic symbols” is merely a means to an end; it should not elevate the symbols above the underlying principles. I think that Merc’s respectful abstention from the Pledge on account of his convictions is an important expression of the principles of freedom of belief and freedom to dissent. As such, it is an act for the good of the country and an encouragement to public service, and as such, it’s truly patriotic.

I think something our society needs to learn now is how to foster solidarity without the need for conformity. We do have to respond to crisis with a deepened sense of commitment to our shared principles and to our fellow-citizens. But we shouldn’t have to return to the McCarthyist approach of trying to make everybody uniform in their outward expression of that commitment, and branding them “un-American” or “unpatriotic” if they resist that.

7

Hi Mercutio, I’m going to pretty much repeat Kimstu’s comments but from a slightly different non-US angle.

I’d suggest considering two things that december doesn’t. Namely,

  • Fully develop, if you haven’t already, an understanding of what ‘US’ means to you personally and don’t be waylaid by the ‘patriotic’ all-embracing use of ‘US’ by others – without quantifying what it actually means, to you or them, you’re responding to emotive and simplistic sloganeering.
  • Continue to separate your rational approach from an emotional response and the emotional, reactionary responses of others.

Bear in mind at all times that in order to win a war, you have to choose your battles and that, FWIW and IMHO, there is nothing less patriotic than blind allegiance – it suggests, perhaps implies, ‘my country right or wrong’ and that is a very dangerous road down which to wander.

8

Kimstu. I’m not sure if you’re disputing what I was trying to say.

I meant to say that Merc’s decision to publicly spurn the Pledge will not encourage her/his classmates to put their personal lives on hold and join the military. Kimstu, are you literally claiming that Merc’s sitting during the Pledge *will *encourage them to do so? Can you explain your point more fully?

9

Two points:

Yeah well, december, people make their own decisions. Don’t they ?

Then…

Or better still, why don’t you continue to backpeddle. Or simply admit you got it wrong :slight_smile:

10

Mercutio,

I agree that you have the right to refuse to participate in the PoA. I agree that you’re right to employ that right. I disagree with your reasoning though.

Specifically your explanations of “with liberty and justice for all” and “indivisible”

IMO, I see these statements sorta as fluff. No, at this particular point in time, we aren’t indivisible. No, at this particular point in time we don’t have liberty and justice for all. But that’s not the point. The point is that we strive for those ideals. We put them into the PoA not to dellude ourselves into believing we’re a utopian society, but to remind us of the direction we need to be headed.

Further, your reasoning behind “with liberty and justice for all” is faulty. Your only point of disagreement is that there isn’t liberty for you because you’re being forced to stand. But now this isn’t the case, is it? You’re NOT being forced to stand. Your civil liberties are NOT being violated. So is the PoA right? Or are there other liberties that you feel you don’t have, but haven’t mentioned, that make you not want to volunteer to say the PoA in class?
Because right now we’re caught up in this catch-22 where being forced to stand violates your liberties and so you won’t stand, but being allowed to not stand gives you the liberties you proclaim you don’t have by not standing. It doesn’t make sense.

11

Mercutio: I understand your points about not wanting to “pledge your allegiance to the flag”, both in your heart and with your words. What is your objection to standing when others are reciting the pledge, though?

12

You are, of course, fully entitled–for ANY reason–to refuse to recite, and even to refuse to stand while others recite, the PoA. You need not give a reason for your position, for no one could lawfully restrict the exercise of your rights because he or she finds your reasons unconvincing. That said, you have stated your reasons, and you appear to invite comment thereon.

I respect your reasons, and I share the values you evidently seek to promote by your protest. I see an an enormous logical disconnect, however, between your actions and your apparent objective.

You seem to view the pledge as a statement of “fact,” which you find to be (to varying degrees) untrue and inaccurate, and thus objectionable because somehow “dishonest.” Properly understood, however, I believe the pledge purports to be descriptive of an ideal. By reciting it, one does not report on a current state of affairs in this country; rather one reaffirms commitment to that ideal. Putting to one side the “under God” wrinkle, is there anything in the pledge that you object to as a matter of aspiration? If not, I would think you would WANT to recite it.

All Americans would do well to ponder the extent to which our Nations falls short of the ideals identified in the pledge. (And if other nations demonstrate either greater commitment or achievement in those same regards, we would do well to emulate their example. Sadly, no examples come readily to to mind, however.) But refusing to recite the pledge strikes me an a singularly misdirected tactic for achieving a rectification of that state of affairs.

13

Wouldn’t be standing displaying a respect for or plainly a tacit agreement with the content of the POA? It would seem rather contradictory to me since he disagrees with its content.

14

I stand during the pledge for the same reason as I bow my head when someone says a Christian grace before a meal–out of respect for the beliefs of others, and an unwillingness to make a scene!

But Mercutio’s letter clearly explains his reasons for not standing, and I respect his decision.

Back in the day, my homeroom teacher used to get on my case about not saying the pledge (though I stood). But he was a lazy butt and had no desire to pursue the matter. So every day he yelled at me, and every day I ignored him.

So, congratulations, Mercutio on presenting your case in a rational manner, and congratulations to your teacher for responding in a rational manner.

15

The only real thing I have a problem with is the initial confrontation. Your teacher has a difficult job, so when he or she asks you to do something as trivial as stand for the pledge, just do it the first time and then outline your objections later that day through the letter. Especially since you said in your letter that you ended up standing anyway after they threatened you with being sent to the principal’s office.

16

Beautifully expressed, Kimstu.

stoid

17

You’re a sophomore in high school? Or were last year?

Wow. That’s an amazing piece of writing for someone so young. Your critical thinking skill appear to excellent. Keep it up!

18

I echo The Bad Astronomer: Wow!
When you’re ready for college (which you are), I hope you’ll wind up in one of my classes. :slight_smile:

19

Mercutio, how beautiful is your spirit! Thank you for sharing with us your intimate feelings.

20

Like I said before, I had my civil liberties taken away from me and through this letter I sought to have them returned. Before this letter, I was being forced to stand up or lose points in class. Before my newspaper article, “God Bless America” posters were all over my school. I saw my civil liberties being trampled on and I took effective measures to bring that to an end.