| A couple of weeks ago, I asked the kid if he started the morning with the Pledge of Allegiance. He does, at least at the school from which he just left. Every morning, the principal would make announcements and lead the school in the Pledge of Allegiance. I didn't actually make a internal note to check, but I suspect that there are flags hanging in every room. I asked him if he found it valuable in understanding the country in which he lives. He said that it's mostly a nuisance that last year pulled him away from completing his math work. This is a kid, mind you, who has articulated that he'd like to follow his father (i.e. me) in serving in our military. You can put that simple story into the backdrop of ongoing efforts in Lansing about the Pledge of Allegiance. It's not an economic issue (i.e., the ability to obtain food, shelter, clothing, and medicine), and it's not an environmental issue (i.e., making sure the air and water aren't toxic, and that the planet can sustain human and other forms of life), but getting things right about patriotism and one's relationship to one's government and the nation it is supposed to serve is pretty important. A few weeks ago, I noted that Doug Geiss -- who was criticized around here a couple of years ago over comments he made about legislator pay -- was one of a few committee representatives who voted against this legislation. The underlying idea behind the bill is a terrible one, and the News gets it right here. It turns "the state" into an icon of worship, which is antithetical to freedom as conceived by the documents at the core of how this country was founded. The people who wrote those documents created government that functioned as a common resource, not a giver of things. Government doesn't give freedom. Freedom is something all people inately possess. Government exists as a communal resource to address problems that can't be solved in other ways, or to better organize things for the common good. You know, build and maintain roads and bridges. |
