I Pledge Allegiance…

Screen Shot 2014-10-29 at 2.27.07 PMRemember those weird kids who didn’t say the Pledge of Allegiance in school? They either sat down or just stood up silently. I sure do. Most likely for religious reasons, but I remember thinking to myself as a kid that it was wrong not to say the pledge aloud with the rest of us. As I got older in my teenage years, I even felt that those kids were not being respectful.

Some adults may even give them the old, “well, if you don’t like it then you can leave” routine that is mentioned every time a minority opts out of the majority’s way of doing things.

Homeschooling my children will really make this a non-issue; however, my nieces were reciting the American Pledge of Allegiance the other day while playing with my children. In fact, here in Texas the kids recite both the American and Texas Pledge of Allegiance before class.

After hearing them recite it, and of course remembering the 2,500 or so times I said it in my lifetime, I started to think about the purpose and real meaning of this pledge that millions of school-aged children recite every morning Monday through Friday.

A pledge, of course, is a vow, an oath, or a commitment. Allegiance is defined as loyalty, devotion, and obedience. In fact, the antonyms for allegiance are treachery and disloyalty.

Crazy when you think about it, right? Do we really want our kids pledging obedience and loyalty to the U.S. federal government? Especially when the pledge itself is masked with a lie. I mean, it ends with, “with liberty and justice for all.” Now that’s a crock of shit right there. Not one arrest in the financial sector for the 2008 crisis, not one investigation into the 2003 Iraq invasion where no WMDs were found, and a complete cover-up of the events on 9/11, i.e., Building 7. Liberty and justice for all… how about we ask Edward Snowden about that? His patriotic actions were described as treachery and disloyalty.

Nationalism and blind patriotism is crucial in keeping a population dumbed-down and ignorant, which is why if you think about it, pledging allegiance to the government we have today is truly a backwards thing to do. Teaching it to a small child is particularly degrading.

As a dad who is proud of my own liberty, this makes life tough sometimes. Do I teach my kids the truth or go with the flow?

On the surface it seems black and white, but it’s not. Teaching your children about certain truths that make them the odd kid out is not exactly what a parent wants for their child. My wife and I are constantly turning to each other and asking ourselves, should we make a stand on this? Because if we do, it might make it hard for the kids.

A great example comes from a friend of mine with an 11-year-old son who stood up on 9/11 at school and countered the teacher’s lesson for the anniversary and told her about the Loose Change version. It was awkward to say the least. To simply question the events of 9/11 go against the state’s religion of nationalism, so for an 11-year-old boy to bring it up in a classroom…you can imagine the trouble it caused.

Teaching my children about the oligarchs and the current state of our leaders in government is not something that I take lightly. I realize that some of our core values, like the belief in liberty, respect for all life, and individual sovereignty will make them the odd kid out sometimes.

Being surrounded by people who have been taught, just as I was, to pledge allegiance to the state, is the unfortunate reality we are all confronted with. something that is so deeply engrained that the best I can do is teach my children to think for themselves and decide on their own. Figuring out how to best teach my children the danger of such blind allegiance is without a doubt the most difficult task I face as a father.

– The Dissident Dad

For more info see this author’s bio

14 thoughts on “I Pledge Allegiance…”

  1. There is no evidence that anyone is a citizen. Citizen is a legal term that implies that someone will obey the demands and wishes of the psychopaths that call themselves “your govt” in exchange for the promise of protection. However the Supreme court has ruled on several occasions that Govt and it’s agencies have no duty or obligation to protect you. And without their part of the agreement you are not a citizen.

    Of course…. You can always continue to swear allegiance to the flag of the psychos if you just can’t break your school days brainwashing.

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  2. Clearly the pledge is for brainwashing.

    A country that lived up to the ideals we grew up believing the US stood for would automatically have that allegiance, without the indoctrination.

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  3. An alternative for the times?

    “I pledge resistance to the fascists of the Police States of Amerika and to the repression for which it stands, one nation under suspicion with surveillance and tyranny for all.”

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  4. Now all those religious freaks from school seem to have been the most Authentic, genuine and I guess you could say informed of all in their classes. To allow themselves to be such a spectacle among their peers at such a tender & impact full time in their lives, showed a REAL deep conviction and allegiance to their God Jehovah, knowing that only he could & would promise AND deliver TRUE “liberty and Justice for all”.

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  5. Enough “odd kids out” and we might actually begin to see this country regain a sense of its true self. Parenting is hard… but not nearly as hard as it was for past generations.

    Loyalty oaths to the U.S. federal government originated during the Civil War in States controlled by government troops – in particular, under the military dictatorship established in Tennessee. Those who refused to take the oath were arrested, jailed, had property destroyed and were even shot, depending on the circumstances. (See Walter Cisco’s “War Crimes Against Southern Civilians”).

    As mentioned above, the PoA was written by a socialist who was, by all accounts, a defrocked minister who self-identified as a “Christian Socialist” (oxymorons apparently weren’t discovered until the 1960s).

    For a very thorough discussion of the PoA, which accurately places it in the larger context of the federal government’s statist machinations that began on April 6, 1861, read Tom DiLorenzo’s “Lincoln Unmasked”. See Chpt 17 – “Pledging Allegiance to the Omnipotent Lincolnian State”. Those machinations included the misfeasance behind the “ratification” of the 14th Amendment, which essentially conscripted the Citizens of every State into a “national citizenry” as a means of usurping and concentrating civil authority in D.C., which has ruled the States as provinces in a de facto empire ever since.

    The tribulations we’re about to witness, as the Republic sighs its last few breaths, have their roots in the ironically-named Republican (formerly Whig) Party agenda of 1860: renewed central banking, regionally unbalanced protectionist tariffs, Hamiltonian crony “capitalism”, “internal improvements” pork funded through redistribution of wealth, federal patronage, inflatable fiat currency, federal tax on income, military adventurism aimed at “imperial glory”, etc. Undoing all that won’t be easy, but it’s the only path back to the Republican Form of Government guaranteed to each State by the Constitution.

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  6. I was not born in this country, but I still would pledge allegiance to the flag of this country precisely for the honesty and courage of the great people such as the author of the above article as well as those who contributed the awesome comments. May God leads America Back home. Amen.

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  7. “One nation indivisable”
    If political entities can be indivisable then why wasn’t the British Empire? Either people have the choice to alter or abolish their governments or they don’t.

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  8. I have two daughters who went through public school, K-12 and never once said the Pledge – for reasons much more than the obvious violation of freedom of religion. It might have made it hard for them at times. A district vice superintendent once asked me what I would do if it caused problems with other kids. My reply was, “To be better than them.” Turned out I was right. But I was also always there to call out any offenders and drive the school board, principal and teachers to adhere to the law, explain the policy that the Pledge is optional, and yes, apologize when someone screwed up. If an 8-year old girl can do it, you can too.

    Here are some quotes from the Supreme Court ruling that decided, in 1943, that students don’t need to say the Pledge, that makes it a civil rights violation to require anyone to stand for the Pledge of Allegiance. Some of the most stirring words you will ever read about what being American means.

    “Probably no deeper division of our people could proceed from any provocation than from finding it necessary to choose what doctrine and whose program public educational officials shall compel youth to unite in embracing. Ultimate futility of such attempts to compel coherence is the lesson of every such effort from the Roman drive to stamp out Christianity as a disturber of its pagan unity, the Inquisition, as a means to religious and dynastic unity, the Siberian exiles as a means to Russian unity, down to the fast failing efforts of our present totalitarian enemies. … It seems trite but necessary to say that the First Amendment to our Constitution was designed to avoid these ends by avoiding these beginnings.”
    __

    “The very purpose of a Bill of Rights was to withdraw certain subjects from the vicissitudes of political controversy, to place them beyond the reach of majorities and officials and to establish them as legal principles to be applied by the courts. One’s right to life, liberty, and property, to free speech, a free press, freedom of worship and assembly, and other fundamental rights may not be submitted to vote; they depend on the outcome of no elections…”

    “To believe that patriotism will not flourish if patriotic ceremonies are voluntary and spontaneous instead of a compulsory routine is to make an unflattering estimate of the appeal of our institutions to free minds.”


    And this…
    “If there is any fixed star in our constitutional constellation, it is that no official, high or petty, can prescribe what shall be orthodox in politics, nationalism, religion, or other matters of opinion or force citizens to confess by word or act their faith therein.”
    West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette, 1947, written by Justice Robert Jackson, is one of the great statements in American constitutional law and history.

    Read it all. http://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/319/624
    Now, if that doesn’t make you proud to be an American…

    Moreover, to make it clear that the law applies, not just to recitation but also to standing.

    “The right to differ and express one’s opinions, to fully vent one’s First Amendment rights, even to the extent of exhibiting disrespect for our flag and country by refusing to stand and participate in the pledge of allegiance, cannot be suppressed.”

    Banks v. Board of Public Instruction of Dade County Court of Appeals, 11th Circuit, 2004

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    HifiSeptember 10, 2017 at 12:35 AM
    BTW, when anyone ever asked why them, “Why don’t you say the Pledge?” The reply was straightforward, factual, and non-confrontational, “Because I don’t have to, no one does.”

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