September 15, 2005

Oh God

Now we get to go back to the whole "under God" thing in the Pledge of Allegiance. Now the sky is falling and the Godless commies are going to overrun us because schoolkids don't say the word "God" in school. I get kind of sick of the righteous chest thumping that this issues brings out. Hey, the Country just got clobbered by worst natural disaster ever, so maybe our efforts to suck up to God aren't working. I say toss God to make the Pledge sound better. The Pledge now reads funny because of the God clause was stuck into it after the fact in the 1950's. "One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all." Some people try and stick extra commas in there, some don't and the whole rhythm of the pledge gets thrown off. "One Nation indivisible, with liberty and justice for all" is much smoother. The whole thing is going to grind away in the courts for years anyway.

2 comments:

Laura said...

Okay, I haven't said the "under god" part of the pledge of allegiance since I was 12. And I don't think it ought to be part of the pledge of allegiance that children are required to say daily.

However, I have a kid in school and she says the pledge including the "under god" part. It doesn't really bother me all that much because I think that in the end, those two little words aren't the end of the world. I think that people need to get over it. As long as the kids aren't required to say it, I don't see the problem.

Besides as Craig said, we're dealing with the worst natural disaster ever, not to mention the fact that our country is at war people all over the world are literally starving to death. Let's have a little perspective here.

Anonymous said...

I skipped the "under god" part, too, back in the day, and one year I and two others sat out the class Christmas play, believing it was inappropriate for Jews to participate. (We didn't realize at the time that it was totally inappropriate.)

But I have to agree with Jess. Children are impressionable and teachers act as role models. And while it isn't the most pressing issue at the moment, it has become part of the theocratization of the country being pushed by the religious right, and as such, I hope Newdow keeps pushing forward, even if he is ultimately defeated (as is likely).