Argument roughdraft

ENG/200

Professor L. Smith

The Pledge of Allegiance is a recognized pledge by the United States Government which unifies the citizens as one nation and every citizen is required to show respect when saying the Pledge of Allegiance.

Significance of the Pledge of Allegiance

Topic Sentence: What is the significance of the Pledge of Allegiance to American Citizens?

· Firstly, the Pledge of Allegiance helps to instill nationalism into young minds.

The Youth’s Companion magazine published the Pledge of Allegiance as a marketing strategy of selling the American flag. In recent times, all the schools in the United States from all religions are required by law to take some time for the children to recite the pledge of allegiance. This helps the young minds to grow with nationalism in them (Martin, Lauzon, Benus, & Livas, 2017).

· Secondly, the pledge of allegiance acts as a symbol of national unity in the United States of America.

For publicity maximization, a new holiday was created which was Columbus Day where the pledge of allegiance to the American flag was the centre of the celebrations in 1892. This being a national holiday, all the Americans were unified in the celebrations by pledge, hence a symbol of national unity (Martin et al. 2017).

· Thirdly, the pledge of allegiance also helps the citizens of the United States to be loyal in defending their great nation.

In reciting the pledge of allegiance, every citizen makes a commitment to be loyal to the American republic where the flag stands. And that they will stand as one nation in defending their republic with equality and justice for all, “with liberty and justice for all” the pledge of allegiance quoted (Martin et al. 2017).

Support the Pledge of Allegiance has in the USA

To what extent is reciting of Pledge of Allegiance supported in America?

· Since the establishment and recognition of the Pledge of Allegiance in the United States by the government, there have been many lawsuits challenging the pledge of allegiance over the wordings.

In earlier 2000, some American individuals went to court arguing that the pledge of allegiance was violating the first Alteration of the United States Constitution due to the fact that the pledge contained the expression “under God.” This vividly shows that not all Americans are in support of the pledge of allegiance (Nelson-Pallmeyer, 2017).

· There is a conflict between the religious and the judiciary over the Lord’s Prayer recitation and recital of the pledge of allegiance in public schools.

The American courts ruled against prayers in public schools in the United States but they legalized the recital of the pledge of allegiance to all American schools. This faced opposition from the Christianity side of the American communities and this clearly shows that the pledge of allegiance is not fully supported in the United States (Nelson-Pallmeyer et al. 2017).

· Almost half of the American population doesn’t recite the pledge of allegiance recently.

Many Americans claim that the reciting of the pledge of allegiance can’t be used to measure their patriotism. They claim that forcing people to recite the pledge of allegiance accomplishes nothing. The deeds of the citizens speak out more of their nation loving, law-abiding, and spiritual and their patriotism and not the words in the pledge of allegiance (Nelson-Pallmeyer et al. 2017).

Pledge of Allegiance no Longer Being Said in School

What are some of the reasons as to why the pledge of allegiance is no longer recited in schools?

· Religious beliefs

Some Americans don't believe in God and by the introduction of the phrase "under God" in the pledge, they were great against it as they didn't want their children to acknowledge somebody else’s divinity (Montgomery, 2015).

· Redundancy

Most of the high school students usually show the pledge of allegiance as just a repetition of words which they have recited since their kindergarten level; hence they see no need to recite it again (Montgomery et al. 2015).

· Magical thinking beliefs

Some parents think that the continuous narration of the pledge of allegiance usually amounts to endorsing magical thinking into their kids instead of knowledge and development which they are paying the schools to do (Montgomery et al. 2015).

References:

Martin, L. A., Lauzon, G. P., Benus, M. J., & Livas Jr, P. (2017, July). E Pluribus Unum: Mohawk Indian Students' Views Regarding the US Pledge of Allegiance. The Educational Forum (Vol. 81, No. 3, pp. 256-266). Routledge.

The authors of this article have clearly indicated the importance of the pledge of allegiance to American people besides showing why it’s important for every American to recite the pledge.

Montgomery, J. J. (2015). Controversies over the Pledge of Allegiance in Public Schools: Case Studies Involving State Law, 9/11, and the Culture Wars (Doctoral dissertation).

The author of the article has clearly demonstrated why the pledge of allegiance is no longer being recited in most schools, issues like parents’ beliefs and redundancy of the pledge have been discussed by the author in depth.

Nelson-Pallmeyer, J. (2017). Brave new world order: must we pledge allegiance?. Wipf and Stock Publishers.

In his article, the author tries to justify why the recitation of the pledge of allegiance is vital to a certain section of the citizens like approval of their patriotism and love for the nation whereas, others aren't because of religion.

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