I personally, do not say the pledge of allegiance.
*audience gasp*
Can you even believe it? I know the five-year-old me who learned the pledge wouldn’t have. For some reason I feel like it was implied early on that to not say it was against the law. I didn’t know what I was saying, but gosh darn it, I was not going to go to kid jail. And therein lies my first problem with our culture of overly patriotic rituals- I was a five-year-old kid, with my hand on my heart reciting a promise to my country that I couldn’t even understand. That’s like signing a contract you haven’t read, plus also you can’t read.
That being said, I do stand for the flag. I do believe this country can work and support its efforts to do so, but at the same time, I understand why some people don’t. You aren’t required to like this country if you live in it, and some people don’t. It seems like we’re all ready to jump down the throats of anyone who doesn’t stand for the pledge, doesn’t mouth along to the words of the national anthem, doesn’t pledge themselves to our country before an audience, which is interesting because it literally does not hurt you one bit to not be upset about it. The fact that they are exercising their right to free will has no impact on our lives at all.
Really, none of that is even that big of a deal. We get upset with an athlete who cares, but the thing is, we even try to apply our customs on other countries. There were Americans who couldn’t just stay in their lane last summer, that started a twitter rampage on a Spanish Olympian who didn’t sing along to his national anthem, and here’s the kicker, the Spanish national anthem, Marcha Real, doesn’t have any lyrics. Congrats, you played yourself.