Obligatory pledge post



Though it will most certainly get overturned, and it will deflect national attention from the important things -- namely our overreaching president and more shadiness from corporate America -- I salute the 9th Circuit Court ruling that reciting the Pledge of Allegiance in public schools unconstitutional, for these reasons:



1. Rote recitation of anything diminishes its meaning. Think of your favorite song, or a poem that particularly moves you. Read its words aloud. Do this again. And again. And over and over until all you hear are syllables. Then some more until the syllables become phonemes.

An aside -- This is something I never understood about Catholicism, either; the idea of penance through repeating a prayer over and over. Other than occupying time the penitent would certainly rather spend doing something else, how is this a sin deterrent?



2. The inherent contradiction. "Under God/Indivisible." What's more divisive than religion?



3. A truly free society would not demand a loyalty oath. For that matter, the only flag worth pledging to is one that its citizens can burn, but that's another argument entirely. Conservatives would argue there's no sense in messing with something that's been in its present form for 50 years. But I'd point out that the nation existed for over 100 years -- including its darkest period -- without a Pledge to its flag. Good enough for the Founders not to worry about, then that's good enough for me.