I will not stand for the pledge

Wed, 05/10/2017 - 21:10 -- RSieff

I refuse to stand for, let alone speak, the pledge.

Because I do not feel pride, honour, or respect

for this country or its government.

My peers, they rise

But I, I remain in my seat.

I sit in silence

as they begin to speak,

“I pledge allegiance to the flag

of the United States of America,

and to the Republic

for which it stands

one Nation under God,

indivisible,

with liberty

and justice

for all.”

 

I refuse to stand for the pledge.

And when I hear those words I feel anger, contempt

Because I know that if I don’t go bankrupt from student debt

Then the world's most expensive health care will be what drives me over the edge.

 

I refuse to stand for the pledge

For I am ashamed to call myself an American.

Ashamed of the pain America’s inflicted

on virtually every gender, race, and religion.

America has hunted, lynched, pillaged, murdered, discriminated, and raped.

It started with the Native Americans when the white man came

and it extended to black people when America decided it was okay to enslave.

We do it to women when we tell them the kitchen is their place,

and until very recently we did not even entertain the thought

that maybe, just maybe

LGBTQ+ are part of the human race.

We locked up Japanese-Americans in a fence-cage

And we locked away Muslims with a ban our very own president put into place.

When our Jewish brothers and sisters in Europe fled to us fearing for their lives,

We turned them away

And turned a blind eye

to their genocide.

 

And you cannot tell me that now these people, the American people, have their rights

For the same reason you cannot tell me that we stand “one Nation under God,

indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”

I’m not extremely religious, so correct me if I’m wrong

But God would never permit such horrid crimes as the ones

that stain my pale lineage with crimson blood.

 

Tell me, how are we indivisible

When police, those meant to protect, butcher based on race?

When my parents warn me to not disclose that I’m a Jew when I go to intern in D.C.

because they’re afraid what might happen if those in the Capitol know what I believe?

 

Tell me, where is the liberty

If I am free to love who I want because I’m not LGBTQ+

but it is not universal in all 50 states, the freedom of love?

 

Tell me, where is the justice

If the rich can buy their way out of murder or rape,

But an innocent man is convicted and sentenced to prison

just because he is poor or because of his skin’s pigment?

 

I will not ridicule my peers for those 31 words

But I will not stand and recite words that praise

A land that deserves something far stronger than disgrace.

To do so would be a crime

To myself, my fellow women

To everything I belief in, to my own religion.

 

And yet, it is more than that still

Because I am not just a woman,

I am not just a Jew,

I am who I love too.

I am white

But I am also who I love

And I love my best friends Diamond and Cece both of whom are mixed.

I am cis (aka straight),

But I am also who I love

And I love my sister who identifies a different way.

 

So no

No I will not stand for, let alone speak, the pledge.

I refuse to so as much as give it any respect.

 

This poem is about: 
Me
My country

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