Pledge requires understanding

Recall your years as an elementary school student. Perhaps you remember the carefree days -… Recall your years as an elementary school student. Perhaps you remember the carefree days – the recess and the zero-pressure academic climate? I’m sure I enjoyed it while I was living it, but when I look back on that period in my life I can only seem to summon a list of grievances.

The absurdity of being expected to write in the defunct garbage-script that is called “cursive”; being occasionally lured and tempted by blood-sucking sales firms that would recruit children to do their dirty work; but most of all, the not-so-distant memories of being practically forced into pledging allegiance to the American flag.

Only years later do I recognize these things as bad influences. As a child, everything in the world is benign until it is explained and extracted from its facade. It’s not that there was no one to tell me the ills of the world; it’s that I wasn’t prepared to understand the explanation.

The pledge of allegiance itself is a very widespread practice of publicly pushing children to align themselves with a symbol that they cannot understand. Come on – how many of you mistook “indivisible” to mean “invisible” back then? We can easily explain to school children why they need to learn math, or why reading is an important skill. But explaining to them that what they are partaking in is a vestigial form of control is too complicated – and so it is often foregone. These poor children grow up indoctrinated to believe that they are part of the master nation – that they are above people of other nations.

Being pressured into taking part in the pledge is insulting to me, as it should be to the overzealous patriots that want to see me exiled for writing this column. For those who do genuinely pledge their sole allegiance to America: There is no reason to publicly reaffirm it on a daily basis. Your country is inanimate, and therefore lacking a heart. She will not cry if you forget to tell her, “I love you.”

Some people don’t have emotional or political reasons for associating themselves with the symbol of an international America. Although I personally do not dislike or hate America, I do see myself as being a human first. Being an American-born citizen is secondary.

Nationality is one of the shallowest properties of human existence, though nonetheless used all the time to make some feel superior to others. Be thankful for your ability to be an American citizen if you are one, but don’t ever be proud for that which you played no role in achieving.

This is why I hate the words, “proud to be an American.” How could someone ever be proud of the geographical location where he was born? That’s as equally as offense as people saying they’re “proud to be white.” It’s a way of being an elitist without actually being elite.

And no – I’m not talking about the rare cases when a person actually means he’s proud of being part of the American community, or being proud of the rights that are given so freely in this country. It’s perfectly OK to be proud of heritage or culture for what it is. But using it to put down others is wrong.

Don’t pledge allegiance unless you’re prepared to give your life for that which you represent. Such are the hollow loyalties of cowards that couldn’t care less for the well-being of this country. It’s this type of phoniness that pervades the general body of people who call themselves patriots.

This attitude of loyalist nationalism is so prevalent because we are herded into it from an early age. We should teach children to be world citizens; they shouldn’t have to grow up as unquestioning, submissive servants of the United States.

I’m in favor of replacing the pledge of allegiance with daily recitation of multiplication tables or U.S. capitol cities – anything that is relevant and useful to children’s education. A repetitive exercise in national obedience should not be a component of any child’s education.

I suppose the reason this ritualistic practice of pledging allegiance is still being carried out is because there isn’t enough pressure to have it permanently removed. And there the problem lies: that most parents do not take active role in parent-teacher organizations. The end product is a parent out of touch and out of control of factors that will permanently affect the rest of their children’s lives.

Parents need to take a bigger role in laying that crucial foundation. Without it, our kids are left wide open to falling for control mechanisms like the pledge.

E-mail Karim at kab85@pitt.edu.