I pulled this off of a blog discussion, thought it was funny and interesting:
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Ok now this might make you all think I'm some kind of wacko...and maybe I am...but since shortly after 9/11, I stopped saying the pledge of allegiance. Not that most Americans are given the opportunity to say it, except at their kids school functions etc.
Ok, now I'll tell you why...
I'm not a Gehovvah's Witness(or however that's spelled)...but the way alot of anti-arab, anti-muslim right-wing extremists were wrapping themselves in it and every redneck in the country wanted to wave the thing as if that made them a better person...well it started to bother me. Then after much "spiritual contemplation", call it meditation..prayer...whatever...it came to me that these "patriots" were making an idol out of a piece of cloth...and as a Christian that really started to bother me. I know it's just a symbol, but that wasn't the way people were treating it.
Funny at the same time...due in a large part to all those months I spent in the Honor Guard in Arizona...I also became very annoyed at all those people who attached it to their cars/trucks and flew it until it was falling apart and ragged. That is a violation of the Flag Act and actually shows a great deal of disrespect for the flag.
So I guess that shows I'm really of two minds on the issue...I don't like the way some people worship the thing...and at the same time...I feel very upset when I see people who are ignorant of the way it is supposed to be properly displayed.