The Pledge

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, everyone else began every morning. I was sometimes forced to stand up, but I never gave in to actually saying the pledge out loud myself, even though I knew it by heart, just like every other kid attending public school in South Carolina during the late 80s.

The pledge continues:

…and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

My teachers may have thought I was unpatriotic at first, but the few who chose to have conversations with me on the basis of my budding civil disobedience began to understand and respect my point of view, and I got away without saying the Pledge for the entirety of my high school life, and I can’t remember for sure, but this might have extended all the way back to middle school.

So, what gives? Isn’t it unpatriotic to sit while everyone else is going rah rah about the flag?

Of course it isn’t. I bet you know that intuitively quite well, …