My Pledge of Allegiance (2007)

I had to pull this one out given the current situation in STL.

From 2007....

I wrote this at the beginning of this school year as a response to my principal. I had some reservations in "having" to recite the Pledge of Allegiance in the classroom. He, along with other teachers, questioned my patriotism, so I had to pull out the mighty PEN on all of 'em.


I love my country. I thank God that I was blessed with the privilege of being born in a country where I can openly express my beliefs and ideologies. I have the utmost respect for the plights and events that led to our emancipation from Great Britain and consequently the African American’s Emancipation from slavery. Only in this country could such a story exist. What I love most about my country is the idea that as an individual I am allowed to constructively question and challenge any of the doctrines that are used in shaping the nucleus of this country. Documents such as the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence both are supposed to be representations and reflections of the society for which they serve. As African Americans, Blacks, Negroes or Colored, we have evolved into a realization of those ideas and promises set forth in these documents.
As I sit and watch Barack Obama, officially become the Democratic Candidate for President of the United States of America, I breathe a sigh of relief as tears stream down my face. In this sigh rings the truths of our torrid past. In this sigh, flow tears symbolizing the sweat and blood of slaves and those (Black and White) who suffered and sacrificed during the periods of Jim Crow and the civil rights movement. It is in these tears that the truest feeling of my patriotism resounds as I am; we are, now truly connected to the American dream and the documents for which we subscribe.
Upon interviewing my 73 year old mother on her reciting the Pledge of Allegiance during her schooling, she informed me that, “We didn’t know why we were saying it. We were just told to say it.” Now, I could only imagine that a 14 year old girl living in 1940’s rural Mississippi could ever truly relate to the ideal of “one nation under God,” when she obviously lived in a world of separate but equal. Of course we know that our history is full of grand paradoxes and vast double standards, but the beauty of this country lies in our drive to learn from the mistakes of our past. It is our constant striving to become a more united states, a more Perfect Union that allows for the Pledge of Allegiance to hold new relevance.
Yet, I think that we would be doing our students a great disservice if we do not take time out to really teach the principles contained within the Pledge of Allegiance. Students must know why our flag is so sacred and what it truly represents. They must understand that it is not just a “White Thing,” as I have heard many students say. They must become aware that the blood shed by many of their ancestors saturates the fabric of Old Glory. These students need to understand the concept of one nation, even though they are forced to compete in the twenty first century with minimal 20th century educational resources. They are coming into a building that has yet to be properly air conditioned, tiles missing from the floors, lockers hanging off of the walls and books containing content relevant to an era far gone.
How can we convince these students that this is one nation under God that is indivisible when a lot of these boys do not know their father or some of the girls have to “deal” with Mommy’s new boyfriend every six months? How do we tell a student population that the ideas of liberty and justice for all includes them when they face the racial profiling and degradation by those who are sworn to protect and serve them?
Well, I contend that we teach them the meaning behind those powerful three words uttered by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., “IN SPITE OF…” We as teachers and administrators must let them know that “in spite of” all that they see and hear that seems to depart from the principles embedded in the Pledge of Allegiance, we can still stand as boldly as those upon whose shoulders we stand. We tell them that too many of our ancestors died so that we could sit in a classroom and learn how to read, think, speak and express our deepest ideas and passions. We tell them that the flag is more than just a piece of fabric blowing in the wind. It is the tangible representation of our treacherous past, our “dream realized” present and most importantly, the purest representation of that future in which we will truly be “one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all.” This is the future that they will rule and occupy.
Let us therefore not program our students like robots, filling their heads with words that have no meaning. Let us not command them to cover their hearts as if we are telling an animal to sit or stand. Let us, instead, provide them with the opportunity to become passionate about the ideas and principles contained in the Pledge so that they may gain an appreciation for the citizenship in the country for which they belong.