Pledge of Allegiance

At age 67, I think I’m probably a member of the same generation as the author of the meme here.  Yet I won’t forward this on social media platforms (other than my own).  It’s not a matter of offending someone; it’s a concern with looking like a moron.

When my kids were growing up, I presented them with my opinion that they (and I) were lucky to have been born in the United States, since it has qualities that make life better here than it is in most countries around the globe.  Our constitution, for instance, guarantees us many important freedoms and rights that are denied to other people.  I also mentioned our wealth of economic opportunities (though they were more abundant then than they are now).

On the other hand, the United States is an extremely aggressive nation in terms of using its military to advance its financial interests, and we’re more or less indifferent to the suffering of others.  We’re also a society built around systemic racism and other forms of hatred and bigotry.

On top of that, we’re a country in which rule of law means very little; the wealthiest among us enjoy a level of “justice” that is completely unavailable to “the other 99.99%.” This has been a problem in America since its inception, though it’s hardly unique to our nation.

The problem in America is that it’s gotten worse over time.  My kids had advanced into their early 20s when Trump was elected; just look at what’s happened since.

In addition, we’ve destroyed our public school system to the point that a huge percentage of working-class Americans reject many of the most important elements of science, including those focused on epidemiology and the climate.

Pledging allegiance to the country in which one happens to have been born is a concept unbefitting of intelligent, self-determined human beings, and it’s made far worse by bringing God into the equation.  Is there a reason that God should favor the United States in its struggles?  Are we to suppose that He loves us more than the Latvians or the Algerians? Again, this is an idea constructed for idiots.

We would all be much better off pledging our support to the other eight billion members of the human race, regardless of their place of birth. We are, however, as far from realizing that ideal as we are from reaching into the sky and touching the moon.