Every morning Elizabeth joined her classmates in reciting the Pledge of
Allegiance. She never thought about what it meant, she just followed
through with the other students repeating the words which came out like one very
long run-on sentence. It was a mechanical exercise.
Today was different. A new girl, Amy, had transferred to her school
from a school in another city. When the time came for the Pledge of
Allegiance, she remained sitting, drawing on her notebook. No one ever
gave much thought to the process before, until that day, but it was as if
someone had scraped their fingernails on the chalkboard. Everyone felt
very uncomfortable and they knew it was because one student was not reciting the
pledge but they did not know why this bothered them.
The students began scanning each other, looking out the corners of their eyes,
with an expression of incredulity. Never, in all their years, had they
seen someone sit down and draw during the pledge. Amy seemed completely
unaware of the tension and happily drew upon her notebook.
As they finished, the teacher looked over towards the class and was shocked
to see Amy sitting there, drawing, rather than joining in the ritual.
"Amy!" said the teacher. "Why didn't you stand up with
the rest of us and say the pledge?"
Amy's head raised up from the notebook. She looked at the teacher and
said, "I don't say the Pledge of Allegiance. I never have and I never
will."
"Amy, you are required to say the Pledge of Allegiance in this
school," the teacher stressed sternly with an intense glare.
"Actually," said Amy, very calm and content, "this school is
within the United States and I am not required to say anything."
Amy had done nothing. It was her doing nothing that was in
question. Nevertheless, the teacher became angry and took Amy's true and
sincere statement as a challenge to her authority.
"Amy, you will stay after school," she ordered.
This incident made Elizabeth feel very torn. On the one hand, Amy
seemed disruptive by not saying the pledge but on the other hand, she had done
nothing - literally. How could one be punished for doing nothing?
Elizabeth decided to wait in the playground after school. She wanted to
talk with Amy when Amy got out of detention. She sat on a swing and
recited the Pledge of Allegiance, only this time she took the time to notice
what the words were and what they meant. She found the words strange and
it left her with some questions.
At about 3:30, the side door of the school opened and Amy came walking
out. She turned towards the road and continued walking, not noticing
Elizabeth on the swings. Elizabeth ran to catch up to Amy. A few
yards before reaching her, she slowed down and then stopped.
"Hi," she said. "I'm Elizabeth. I'm in your
class."
Amy turned and smiled. "Hi, Elizabeth. I'm Amy. Did
you wait here for me to come out of detention?"
Elizabeth blushed, "Well, um, yeah, I was, well I was wondering about,
you know, the pledge and why you didn't say it."
Amy looked down and then raised her head to Elizabeth and replied, "I'm
happy to meet you and everything, but really I don't think it is anyone's
business why I choose not to say the Pledge of Allegiance. It's my own
business and I don't need to explain it to anyone."
"You don't have to explain it to me," said Elizabeth. "I
was just hoping you would because I never met anyone before who wouldn't say
it. I don't even really understand the Pledge of Allegiance. I was
hoping that talking with you about it would help me learn something."
The two were silent. They began walking down the street. It was
fall and the leaves were turning gold and red. A dog started following
them from a distance. No one knew who he belonged to, he just showed up
now and then and tagged along.
"Elizabeth," said Amy. "Do you know what flags are
for?"
"I haven't really thought about it," she answered, "but I was
really hoping you'd tell me about the pledge."
"I am telling you about the pledge. The pledge is a pledge to a
flag and that's where we should start, with the flag." Amy became
animated. She was beginning to enjoy the idea of talking about it.
Her reluctance was not caused by shame, it was caused by her belief that she, as
an individual, has the right to make her own personal decisions without anyone
having the right to demand an explanation. In this case, she saw that it
would benefit Elizabeth. Since there was a reason other than a demand for
an explanation, she didn't mind sharing her thoughts.
"Flags are about war," she continued. "Flags are about
blindly rallying to the call of murder. My father blindly rallied to the
call of murder, behind that very flag, and now he's dead. I won't let them
program me in to following like a lemming over the cliff."
She was silent for a time.
Elizabeth thought about what Amy had said. She had thought she was
pledging allegiance to her country, but now that she thought about the words
"I Pledge Allegiance to the Flag," she could see that Amy was right.
"What about 'to the Republic for which It Stands'," asked
Elizabeth.
"Whose republic?" replied Amy? Do you vote?
"No, I'm too young, but one day I will," said Elizabeth.
"Let talk about that," Amy said with a heated voice.
"First of all, they are forcing you to pledge allegiance to a republic and
they don't let you vote. That smacks of slavery. Later you will
vote, but for whom will you vote? Two political parties have a lock on the
electoral process and both represent the same class - the rich. Are you
rich, Elizabeth?"
"Well, now, I'm not rich, but I'm not poor," she replied.
"The difference between you and the rich is much bigger than the
difference between you and the poor, Elizabeth. The rich don't have to
worry about working. The rich have complete access to the legal
system. The rich can get away with things that you cannot get away
with. The rich do not go off and die in wars to protect their republic,
they send the poor and they send you."
Elizabeth thought about Amy's words. She was right. Her
parents were always worried about their jobs. They were stressed.
They feared becoming poor but they had no expectation of ever become rich.
Amy was onto something.
Amy continued, "Look at the President. Are his daughters
fighting in the war? Have you heard of the son or daughter of any wealthy
corporate man that has died in the war? Have you seen any soldiers living
well and enjoying the things the rich enjoy? You haven't because they are
not rich. The republic belongs to the rich and it is paid for with the
blood of the poor. It is not your republic and pledging allegiance to it
is like a slave pledging allegiance to her master or a rape victim pledging
allegiance to her rapist.
"Have you ever wondered why they make you repeat that pledge, every
day? When someone takes an oath of office, they do it once. They
don't do it every day. Pledges are meant to be taken once. When
someone has you recite something, over and over, every day of your life,
they seek to program you. I bet you never thought about the words of the
Pledge of Allegiance before, have you?"
"No, I haven't. I say it like it's one long word..."
"Exactly. It is a program, not a pledge. The daily
recital of that pledge is indoctrination. The Nazis used
indoctrination. The Soviets used indoctrination. Cults use
indoctrination. Do you want to be a robot, Elizabeth?"
"No, I don't want to be a robot," she replied.
"Then think about what you let them do to you. When the call to
die for the republic of the rich goes out, do you want to march blindly off like
a good little robot to die in the rich man's war or do you want to have the
spine to stand up and say, 'No Way!'"?
A twig falling from a tree could have broken the silence, but none
fell. The two walked in silence for twenty minutes. As they passed
an apartment building Amy said, "This is where I get off. I'll see
you tomorrow."
Elizabeth continued walking. She reached her housing track and
looked at the rows of identical houses. Something had changed within
her. She felt a sense of self.
The next day in class all of the children stood up to say the pledge,
except for Elizabeth and Amy. The teacher glared at the two and said,
"Do we have to go through this again?"
"Yes," Elizabeth replied, "I pledge allegiance to no
one."
This piece was written beautifully! I also really admire the fact that you chose two young girls to demonstrate that the revolution of the mind includes both genders and all ages. This is definitely something that my parents, younger sisters, and brother, will be reading.
Young girls and young boys are his target audience.
Grown ups think he is an asshole!!!!!!
I'm glad he targets us too.
What a sappy little story.
Children? Those two girls sound like they are adult socialists speaking because it's a didactic little adult writing this nonsense.
How do you write socialist indoctrination through very bad literature? Brainwash through bad storytelling. YIKES
Hey this site discriminates. The only other language beside English is Spanish. Where is the HIndi, the French, the Mandarin, the Polish, the etc etc
This is prejudice! This is racism!
Correction - didactic anarchists.
Socialists like flags. Anarchists do not.
Most successful socialist revolutions were really nationalist efforts to expel imperialist colonizers. For example, after Vietnam ejected the French, and then ejected supporters of the USA, they had total communist control. Then the proceeded to get into wars with their neighboring communists in Cambodia and China.
Where was the unity between the ideological brotherhood of Marxists? Well... there wasn't any because it was as much, or more, about nationalism and power as about communism.
the vietnamese army went into Champochia to rescue their neighbors from Pol Pot. China intruded into Vietnam. They resisted.