Last week an elected official violated a citizen's rights and basically trashed the United States Constitution. Winter Garden (Florida) mayor John Rees demanded a person attending a city council meeting stand for the Pledge of Allegiance, and when that person refused, he ordered the Police Chief to remove that man from the room -- and the Police Chief complied. The mayor said he thought the man's refusal to stand for the pledge showed a lack of respect for American troops fighting overseas.
Of course, that's ridiculous. The gentleman's refusal to stand for the pledge had nothing at all to do with supporting our troops -- or with his love for this country either. The man was exercising his "free speech" and "freedom of religion" rights under the Constitution -- and opposing the idea that when one recites the pledge today, one is not only pledging allegiance to this country but also declaring a belief in god (something no American should be forced to do, since "freedom of religion" also guarantees the right to be free from religion). ACLU spokesman Baylor Johnson hit the nail on the head by saying of the incident:
"People are not required to participate in the Pledge of Allegiance or a sectarian prayer or any kind of compulsory expression just to attend a public meeting."
"The problem with telling people they have to participate in any mandatory expression is that it tells people who might have a religious objection or other deeply held belief that, if they don't go along with what the government tells them to do, they aren't welcome in this community." This brings up the question -- why must our Pledge of Allegiance contain the divisive phrase "under god"? Why must any person profess a belief in a god to pledge their allegiance to this country? I love my country, but I have not spoken the words of the Pledge of Allegiance for several decades -- because I do not believe in a god, and I have to desire to publicly profess a belief in god. I know that many religionists consider the phrase to be a harmless one, but for me (and millions of other Americans) it would be a lie -- and no one should be forced to lie to profess their love of country.The pledge has not always had that phrase. The pledge was written in 1892 by Francis Bellamy (a minister and a socialist), and for the next 62 years it was recited in schools and public events without the words "under god" (much like the pledge shown above). It was not until June 16 of 1954 that the pledge was officially changed to include those words (probably as an overreaction to "godless communism").
The intention of the pledge is to bring Americans together in support for their country -- but putting the words "under god" in the pledge actually accomplished just the opposite. It divided the country by making the pledge a profession of belief in god -- something that millions of Americans simply are unwilling to do. Why can't we just remove those two offensive words, and return to a pledge that shows love of country without including religion?
The Seidewitz Group recently conducted a survey for the American Humanist Association on this issue. They surveyed a random national sample of 1,000 adults on May 29 of 2014 (with a margin of error of 3.1 points) -- and they found a large number of Americans would like to see those words removed from the pledge. That includes about 34.3% of the general public (or more than 100 million Americans), and even larger percentages of many demographic groups. The results of the survey are shown in the chart below.
Isn't it time to return to a pledge that everyone who loves this country can recite?
