You may not have heard about Will Phillips until now. I hadn’t either; this morning I was going through the Friendly Atheist RSS feed and saw this post that links to several video clips about him.
Will won’t stand up for the Pledge of Allegiance because:
“I’ve always tried to analyze things because I want to be lawyer,” Will said. “I really don’t feel that there’s currently liberty and justice for all.”
He’s taken a stand (by sitting down) about the way LGBT Americans are treated, and he’s gotten sent to the principal’s office over it. He’s faced a lot of loud hostility from his fellow students. And he’s not backing down.
Oh yeah, and he’s only ten years old.
So this is me adding my voice to all of Will’s supporters on the internet. You’re my hero, Will. You’re one smart, strong kid, and I can’t wait to see the name taking and ass-kicking you’ll be doing when you grow up.
Like most people who are no longer in the public school system, it’s been a long time since I’ve been put in a position where I’d have to say the Pledge of Allegiance. The last time that I can remember was at a city council meeting that I attended as part of an assignment for my basic political science class. On that occasion, I stood up for the Pledge, but I didn’t put my hand over my heart, and I sure didn’t say it. Like Will, I feel like there isn’t “liberty and justice for all” in the US right now. (Not that there really has been in the past.)
And I have the added utter contempt for the phrase “under God,” for its absolute hypocrisy when we live in a country with the separation of church and state enshrined in the constitution, for the disgusting stain of McCarthyism that has still not been expunged after fifty years, and for the hatred and attacks aimed at me and my fellow atheists by the people who like to point at that single stupid phrase to justify the lie that we’re a “Christian nation” and I should “love it or leave it.”
We adults don’t encounter the Pledge often, and I’m grateful for it. The whole thing makes me uncomfortable, because I don’t agree with the Pledge, and I don’t like the nationalist overtones. As an adult, you don’t have many opportunities to take issue with the Pledge (unless you’re in public office, maybe) other than writing cranky blog posts about it. It warms my heart that Will (and some other kids here and there across the country) are taking their chance to make their point, and strongly. If it gets other people of any age to think about what’s going on, it’s surely worth it.