paútriúotúism n. Love of and devotion to one’s country.

With the current wave of patriotism moving into America, we have seen the re-emergence of a lost tradition, the Pledge of Allegiance.

Many see this as a positive, because we are instilling in the youth of America once more a sense of patriotism, which can help them deal with the attack on the World Trade Center.

But therein lies the rub. Making students learn the Pledge of Allegiance does more harm than good.

Call me what you will – commie, red, unpatriotic-liberal-nazi-bastard who should go live in Afghanistan – but at least think about it for a moment.

There are those in this country who would choose not to participate in the pledge. Whether for religious reasons or political beliefs, whatever their reason, these people suddenly stand out. Instead of coming together, these people will become targets, especially in schools. And we all know just how easily children treat differences in school.

Another reason the pledge is a bad idea that that it doesn’t instill the idea of patriotism. I remember back in elementary school when I would go to my class, wait for the school-wide announcements and then the school-led Pledge of Allegiance. It took a while to pick up all the words because it was never taught or broken down for us.

In middle school, flags were still displayed in school, but the pledge was often left out. So the words were foregone and we stared at the flag for several minutes.

But in high school it all came together. No longer were we forced to stand up facing a flag and reciting words we didn’t really comprehend. Instead they waited for things like school-wide assemblies, and that’s when it set in.

I pledge allegiance (I give myself), to the flag (to an idea no one has ever explained), of the United States of America. And to the Republic, (the United States) for which it stands (the government). One nation, under God (huh what? independent thought alarm!) indivisible (all for one and one for all) with liberty and justice for all (freedom for all, but you better worship OUR God).

Time to back up. One nation under God?

I had always been taught that this country was founded by people seeking escape from religious persecution by a king. And here we were reciting something that we never really thought about, and forcing students to praise God. Assuming this meant students were free not to stand then, as was their right, I tested it out at an assembly one day. I choose to remain seated, only to be poked and prodded by the teachers behind me who ordered me to stand up right away and do “what was right.”

Wasn’t making a stand the right thing to do, I wondered. There goes that independent thought alarm again. I found the best way to avoid them was to avoid assemblies from then on.

It wasn’t hard to find out that “under God” didn’t appear in the Pledge until 1954. A campaign by the Knights of Columbus convinced Congress to add the two words. It took little effort on the parts of the Knights as Congress would jump on any opportunity to instill a sense of God, on the people of the United States, easier to weed out those godless commies.

And today we are in nearly the same position. Say the Pledge like a good American (Christian) or you must be against us, and a part of those godless towel-heads. Schools already hand out gold stars for doing a good job, maybe now they will start handing out bigger gold stars, for children to pin to their clothing, if they don’t say the pledge.

The pledge doesn’t instill a sense of patriotism, it makes our children mindlessly participate in something they don’t understand.

We should have a great country that we can all be proud of, and then we can feel the pride for our country that makes us want to show our pride. Not the other way around.

Blaine Moyle is a junior in English from Des Moines.