My mom was expelled from high school for flag salute. It led me to see the importance of law in protecting minorities. I used to worship the Court. My profs. always said I was only looking at one snap shot in time. Over time, the Court has been very bad protecting rights. They were right.
We were allowed to salute the flag in elementary school b/c there were no snitches around. It was during the Cold War. We weren't learning skills - only antiRussian propaganda. I knew I would die during the Cuban Missle Crisis. We practiced hiding under our desks, memorized all the civil defense shelters in the neighborhood so we could go there when the bomb came. I wanted to be with my parents when i died. Terrible times, much worse than 9.11. The social pressure to salute would have been extraordinary. Besides, the Witnesses were very clear in non express ways that the uS was the good side.
So I saluted, then I refusedd b/c of the Viet Nam War. I attended an urban ghetto high school so none of the blacks were saluting. My meek classmates were raising their fists in black power salutes. When it started at the Olympics, I was so afraid of the militants. Soon these black mama's boys who would never hurt anyone were raising their fists. The principal asked why I wasn't saluting. I said Jehovah Witness family but I also believed the war should end and anyone to signal that was fair game.
After September 11th, I relished the chance to salute again. I am a New Yorker. My mom and I were together. People were saluting at events that never had flag salute before. Tears welled in my eyes. There was such a sense of strong community, that we were being forged to be ready.
If the US does something foul again, like Viet Nam, I will not salute again. My mom was deeply traumatized by the flag salute issue. It did not seem a principled reason to be a low paid flunkey forever. It was not central to Witness belief, just the way blood is not central. It is being yanked by Bethel. The United States fought very hard with the Allies. If the US did not fight the Axis, would Bethel allow Hitler to confiscate the main assets and send people like me to concentration camps. I was raised with neutrality but the acknowledgement that we were American JWS and we were very lucky.