From Pledge to Protest: The Price of Forgetting.
Who Took the Flag Out of Our Schools?
There was a time when every school day in America began with unity. One flag. One nation. One voice. The Pledge of Allegiance was not just a formality. It was a ritual of belonging. A reminder that despite our differences, we were part of something bigger. But little by little, that ritual was stripped from our schools. It started with lawsuits pushed by activist groups like the ACLU. Then came school boards caving to pressure from secular organizations and political factions that claimed the words “under God” were offensive. The courts didn’t ban it outright, but they opened the door to schools quietly removing it, claiming neutrality while erasing patriotism from the classroom.
They said it wasn’t inclusive. They said it violated separation of church and state. They said children should not be “forced” to say something they might not agree with. And now we are looking around wondering why an entire generation feels no loyalty to the country that gave them everything.
The truth is, when you remove the pledge, you remove the foundation. Patriotism is not inherited. It is taught. It is modeled. It is spoken out loud and repeated until it means something. That daily reminder told kids they were part of a republic. That freedom had rules. That liberty came with responsibility. But now those same kids are grown and many of them hate the flag. They think America is the enemy. They chant for its downfall and burn the very symbol that protected their right to speak at all.
According to a 2023 Gallup poll, only 38 percent of young adults say they are extremely proud to be American. That number used to be over 70 percent just a generation ago. The shift is not accidental. It is the result of years of erasing civic education and replacing it with grievance and guilt. We do not raise patriots by accident. We raise them through culture, through truth, and through reminders like the pledge that they are part of something sacred.
When you stop pledging allegiance to the United States, what are you pledging allegiance to? Ideology? Algorithms? Activist movements? Whatever the internet tells you to feel today? A country without a shared ritual is a country with no glue. The Pledge was never about forcing belief. It was about remembering who we are.
We are seeing the results now. Riots instead of resolve. Division instead of debate. Destruction instead of duty. Young people who believe rebellion is power but have no idea what it takes to hold a nation together. You don’t have to agree with everything America has done. But if you live here, if you enjoy the rights others died to give you, the least you can do is remember where it all came from.
Bring the Pledge back. Not to check a box, but to fix a foundation. If we want a future of citizens who still care about freedom, we better start by reminding them who gave it to them. And we better stop listening to the people who spent the last 20 years trying to make them forget.
If we need to do anything at all we just need to change it a tad bit. a tiny adjustment could change the way everyone feels. even about each other.
here is my suggestion.
Here is the Pledge of Allegiance of the United States:
“I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one Nation, We the People indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”
It’s so simple. and includes anyone who is in fact an American. No one else counts.