> While I have a lot of problem with the Pledge in any form, I think it > would be greatly improved if it were made to the Constitution, rather > than the flag.
But wouldn't that hint to these children that they may actually have to think ? You don't have to think of a flag, you just react with (preprepared) emotions, but with a constitution... I once went to the US, in a family, for a couple of weeks, and went to high school there. I didn't know about it then, and it really took me by surprise. The whole classroom standing up to the sound the loudspeaker, like some show of warmongering made for TV in some dictatorial country. Eerie. Best of all was, we were a group of french people one day, in the library, and this happened again. We looked at each other, and tacitly decided to continue our stuff, silently, without at all disrupting their ceremony. No more than two minutes after the end of it, we got the head of the library come to us, knowing we were french, and telling us we *had* to do it... That was *years* ago. You bet that after that, some people forget to think altogether and refer back to this thorough brainwashing they had when they were kids. -- Vincent Penquerc'h
