Pledge This

As if the neocons don’t have enough to whine about at the moment, it seems another community college in California has decided that the Pledge of Allegiance is no longer required at school functions.

Nothing, I’ve found, gets a self-proclaimed patriot’s blood boiling like issues involving the flag. In a recent exchange on our union “members only” bulletin board, yours truly provoked the furor of flag worshipers by suggesting that “...it is a bit over marketed these days,” and “If I’m not a patriot because I don’t walk around in a state of ecstasy from all this exposure, so be it.”

It’s extremely difficult for me to get excited about our flag when, during one thirty minute commute a few weeks ago, I counted 51 flags, or representations thereof, including some notable locations such as a car wash, campaign signs, a truck stop, a dumpster, and a trailer hitch cover between two naked lady mud flaps. Old Glory even graced the parking lot of our local Wal-Mart where, once inside, one could purchase a miniature flag at the checkout stand (made in a Chinese sweatshop, of course). It’s all a little weird.

Back to the Pledge. If flag overexposure hasn’t dampened your enthusiasm, the phrase “under God” just might. Some of us don’t exactly subscribe to the whole god thing and in fact may actually resent the idea of being “under” the gods of this man or that man.

Want to save the Pledge of Allegiance? Remove the offensive language and restore the flag to its former glory, then we’ll talk.