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Volume 40, Issue 4
October 15, 2002
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Removal of God raises red flag
By Danny Alcocer
For the Mesa Legend
Photo by M.A. Reed/Mesa Legend
Children in Sandy Silvis' first-grade class at Keller Elementary School
in Mesa recite the Pledge of Allegiance. This is one of the first tasks
they do every morning before the start of their studies.
"I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America
and to the Republic for which it stands, one Nation indivisible, with
liberty and justice for all."
As you read the pledge that you so innocently stood up and announced at
the beginning of each day as a child, you may have noticed something missing;
The "UNDER GOD" phrase.
Recently there has been a huge controversy around our precious pledge
of allegiance.
The 9th Circuit Court of appeals has decided that part of the pledge of
allegiance violates the constitutional separation between church and state.
It concluded that the phrase "under God" impermissibly takes
a position with respect to the purely religious question of the existence
and identity of God.
While you may be thinking similar to President Bush when he called the
ruling "ridiculous," there is some validity to removing "under
God."
After all when the pledge of allegiance was originally written by our
founding fathers, there was no "under God" in the pledge.
It was added later in 1954 by Congress, and has remained in the mouths
of children ever since.
As children you may recall standing in front of your desk and saying the
pledge of allegiance before class started each day.
Being ten years out of elementary school, how would you feel about reciting
the pledge with "under God" missing?
"We all grew up saying the same pledge why do people feel the need
to change it now?" said Eric Citron, MCC student.
"The pledge of allegiance and our country nationalism has not been
taken seriously for 45 years. So why should it matter now, since 9/11
everyone has been so disillusioned with disarray, all of sudden we are
supposed to be patriotic, we should just live our lives the way we always
have and just be happy."
Robert Eagle, junior, echoed his classmates' thoughts saying, "If
you really think that saying 'under God' should be removed from the pledge
then you're obviously not practicing the freedom that it was intended
to make you feel."
He went on to state, "Taking it (under God) out could make a lot
of people uncomfortable and in essence you could be taking some people's
right to believe in God away."
"I think it should stay," said Mike Simms, Science Department
chair, "There are enough problems with our nation today, that 'under
God' remaining in our pledge shouldn't be taking top priority."
Why is there such a debate over this two word phrase now than opposed
to 15 or 20 years ago?
"I'm not sure, it could be our trend nowadays of making all of our
semantics so perfect and so specific down to each and every point,"
said Simms.
"I understand the point that is trying to be made that religion and
state should be kept separate, but everyone has there own perception of
God and that doesn't specifically relate to religion."
While it seems most people feel the "under God" should remain
untouched there are still a few people out there who think otherwise.
The Pepsi Corp. is making cans with the pledge of allegiance printed on
the back minus "under God."
According to Pepsi they did not want to cause any controversy and felt
that they were playing it safe, by making the cans this way.
"Under God should be taken out, not everyone believes in God so they
should take it out," said Tim Martin, freshman.
"It's like when you go to court and they ask you to swear on the
bible and on God, and if you don't believe in God then they ask you to
swear on yourself, they don't make you do either or it's your choice and
the pledge of allegiance should be the same way."
We are in an age where being, "politically correct", is becoming
more important than the actual actions of our appointed representatives.
Another minute phrase is raising everyone's eyebrows.
This time the question is whether or not to drop "under God"
from the pledge of allegiance.
Whether you believe in God or not is not the question.
Church and state are completely separate in our nation today.
Adding or removing "under God" is not going to change that.
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