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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Why would you be upset about something so small? Dedication and pride in one's country (native or adopted) should not be an issue. Your kid should stand because it's not about the President, [b]it's about the women and men in the armed forces [/b]who serve [b]EACH.AND.EVERY.DAY.[/b] so that your kid has certain freedoms. Why can't you and your child have respect for these people? Why are you being so hostile about your child being grateful for the freedoms that he currently has?[/quote]

You don't get to decide what it's about for me or for others. It's about soldiers for you? Fine. You want to stand and recite it? Fine.

[b]I. DON'T. HAVE. TO.[/b] [/quote]

But why though? I truly am trying to understand where you are coming from. What is the point you are trying to make by refusing to do something respectful that takes not even a minute? What is the problem with the pledge of allegiance?[/quote]

The original case involved Jehovah's Witnesses.  From Wikipedia (Note that the Nazis also persecuted JWs for refusal to salute the flag):

"In the 1930s, the government of Nazi Germany began arresting thousands of Jehovah's Witnesses who refused to salute the Nazi flag and sent them to concentration camps. Jehovah's Witnesses teach that the obligation imposed by the law of God is superior to that of laws enacted by temporal government. Their religious beliefs include a literal version of Exodus, Chapter 20, verses 4 and 5, which says: 'Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; thou shalt not bow down thyself to them nor serve them.' They consider that the flag is an 'image' within this command. For this reason, they refused to salute the flag. Children of Jehovah's Witnesses had been expelled from school and were threatened with exclusion for no other cause. Officials threatened to send them to reformatories maintained for criminally inclined juveniles. Parents of such children had been prosecuted and were being threatened with prosecutions for causing delinquency. In 1935, 9-year-old Carlton Nichols was expelled from school and his father arrested in Lynn, Massachusetts for such a refusal."

So, some people have religious objections.  Others object to the principle, rejecting any kind of mandated loyalty oaths.  Personally, I find making groups of schoolkids recite the Pledge kind of creepy.  Of course, I went to a Catholic school, where we added "the born and the unborn" to the end of the Pledge, so I was never under any illusions about the purpose and explicitly political nature of the Pledge (if the history of the phrase "under God" didn't already demonstrate that).  Yes, it's a small thing, but public displays of patriotism are really common in American life (sporting events, for example--why should we sing the National Anthem before playing a game of football) but pretty unusual in other democracies.  Many people find them jingoist rather than moving.

And look at the PP who equates the Pledge with respect for people serving in the military.  There's not a single word about the military in the pledge.  How is not standing for the pledge disrespecting a soldier?  Why should a private citizen have to venerate the military anyway?  It's nice if you want to, but this isn't Starship Troopers.  Why is venerating the military equated with patriotism?  Not wanting to make a public display of one's loyalty to one's country does not mean that one does not love that country.  If anything, the truest patriots I know are not the ones who make a big show of their patriotism.  [/quote]

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