I attended public schools from kindergarten through high school in two different states. In every school, our day was started with the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag of the United States. We were taught proper flag etiquette, what the flag stood for and to be proud of America.
When I look at the American flag, I can’t help but think about all of the hundreds of thousands of Americans that gave their lives or parts of their bodies defending that flag. Like millions of other Americans, I have family and friends that have sacrificed for our flag. In fact, I see the red stripes of the American flag representing the blood that has been spilled to secure and protect it. The white stripes remind me of the rows of white crosses at military cemeteries across the nation.
The same cannot be said of many public schools today. The kids are being taught to be ashamed of America because we are the big evil country that is ruining the world. The American flag and the Pledge have disappeared from thousands of classrooms. Instead of learning about the flag and proper flag etiquette, students are showed how to burn and trample upon our nation’s flag. In some schools, they’re being taught to say the Pledge of Allegiance in Spanish, French and Arabic. I recall one school where the Mexican flag was flown above the American flag.
Evidently, I’m not the only one who sees this trend to be unpatriotic and dangerous. Oregon State Rep. Sal Esquivel, a Republican also sees what’s happening and is trying to do something to about it. He has introduced a bill into the Oregon legislature that would make it mandatory for all schools to display the American flag in every classroom, like it was when I went to school. A second provision of his bill would require schools to set aside enough time every day for the recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance, instead of once a week.
The bill not only covers all public schools in the state, but it would also include all public charter schools as well.
Even though time would be set aside every day for the Pledge of Allegiance, students would not be required to recite it nor would they be punished for not saying it.
It’s sad and demoralizing to consider the fact that honoring our nation has to be legislated. After 9/11, American flags were flying everywhere and it seemed that patriotism was returning. People were proud to be Americans.
But the liberals running our public schools soon put an end to that. They removed American flags from classrooms across the land. They eliminated the Pledge of Allegiance and replaced it with anti-American propaganda. Students were being taught to look on the flag as a symbol of oppression and hatred. Many of those students are now young adults starting their own families and filling their young children’s minds with the same anti-American rhetoric they were taught.
I hope and pray that Oregon passes the bill to put the flag and Pledge back into classrooms, but am still saddened that it takes this type of action to make it happen.
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