My Pledge of Allegiance
To whom it may concern,
On behalf of some students and myself, we have a grievance that we wish to address with // teacher, admin, or district //. Our issue stems from the simple fact that you insist on forcing us to either recite the Pledge of Allegiance every day or be required to write you an explanation if we conscientiously decide not to. We find this unacceptable. You are not allowed to impose us to recite the Pledge of Allegiance if one does not support it. Our rights as American citizens remain infringed upon every time you insist on placing your views on us. As stated in the First Amendment, "Congress shall make no law [rule] respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof [in the case of the Pledge of Allegiance]." The Pledge—including the words of " under God "—violates the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment. Provided, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion." Similarly, every student was born with a given right—that of freedom of speech; It is our freedom not to write, I repeat, not to write any letters explaining why we do not salute the flag. Moreover, there is absolutely no reason nor excuse why anyone's parents are contacted for sitting down during the Pledge of Allegiance. It is disrespectful to challenge our beliefs and vigorously question for an explanation. We are immensely disappointed that our beliefs and values are not considered; every citizen is entitled to their own opinion. We expect you—as our // teacher, admin, or district //—to accept our beliefs for how they are.
Our right to freely express ourselves remains infringed as well. Again, the First Amendment guarantees our right to free expression and free association—no one, especially that of a // teacher, admin, or district //, has the right to forbid us from speaking freely nor sitting down during the Pledge of Allegiance. I hope you realize those ways are outdated. For years, people who required others to salute the flag did not ever stop once to think about how others felt about it—these self-centered individuals remained entitled to their unjust beliefs. Times have changed, as well as our thoughts. I respect that you are entitled to your opinions, but please understand we are entitled to our own as well.