Comments on: The American Flag and Cross Under Attack http://socyberty.com/politics/the-american-flag-and-cross-under-attack/ Fri, 01 Jun 2012 15:07:34 -0400 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 By: S. Bellam http://socyberty.com/politics/the-american-flag-and-cross-under-attack/comment-page-1/#comment-294894 S. Bellam Mon, 14 Jun 2010 17:46:27 +0000 http://socyberty.com/politics/the-american-flag-and-cross-under-attack/#comment-294894 I\'ve never understood the need for compelling people to publicly recite a pledge to any nation, let alone one that has makes the reciter claim allegiance to god. Which god is it anyway? The whole recitation seems silly and pointless at best. Why do we play the national anthem at sporting events where only American athletes are competing against one another? Is there a fear that the crowd will break out in \"God Save the Queen\"? What\'s the point? It\'s symbolism run amok and I think it does more of a disservice to the ideals enshrined in our nation\'s constitution. If these expressions of nationalism were spontaneous perhaps they\'d be meaningful, but I\'ve never witnessed that. Why not encourage meaningful contributions to our nation like voting regularly, donating blood, marrow, organs, volunteering, lessening your dependency on non-renewable energy, visit another country to learn what works and bring back the good ideas? Flag waving and pledging allegiance seems rather narcissistic to me. It\'s embarrassing to me that we don\'t score higher on the Human Development Index. Perhaps. One would expect the mortality rate and the average life expectancy to be higher for Americans than it currently is. Your thoughts? S. Bellam I\’ve never understood the need for compelling people to publicly recite a pledge to any nation, let alone one that has makes the reciter claim allegiance to god. Which god is it anyway?

The whole recitation seems silly and pointless at best. Why do we play the national anthem at sporting events where only American athletes are competing against one another? Is there a fear that the crowd will break out in \”God Save the Queen\”? What\’s the point? It\’s symbolism run amok and I think it does more of a disservice to the ideals enshrined in our nation\’s constitution.

If these expressions of nationalism were spontaneous perhaps they\’d be meaningful, but I\’ve never witnessed that. Why not encourage meaningful contributions to our nation like voting regularly, donating blood, marrow, organs, volunteering, lessening your dependency on non-renewable energy, visit another country to learn what works and bring back the good ideas? Flag waving and pledging allegiance seems rather narcissistic to me. It\’s embarrassing to me that we don\’t score higher on the Human Development Index. Perhaps. One would expect the mortality rate and the average life expectancy to be higher for Americans than it currently is.

Your thoughts?

S. Bellam

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