“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.”

Some of you are probably thinking, “OK, we know the Pledge of Allegiance, so why are you quoting it?” Well, I am glad you asked.

I am not one to compose my thoughts about the crazy events happening within our nation and world on Facebook. I do not partake in political conversation or debate with people on controversial topics. It is not that I do not care or that I do not understand. I don’t talk about these topics because before I can get my thoughts out about one event, five more catastrophes have taken the place of it. Every single day I log into Facebook to find another tragedy going on. This article will probably be my one shot at mentioning any of my opinions, and I apologize in advance for anyone who may get offended by what I have to say.

When I was growing up, we said the Pledge of Allegiance after the announcements every morning at school. I’m not sure how common this was outside of my district, but I am going to take a wild guess and say that my school was not the only one to include this in the morning routine. I remember some of my classmates abstained from putting their hand on their hearts and reciting along with the rest of the class. They had different beliefs. However, out of respect, they stood and remained silent while the rest of us quoted that powerful phrase. I am only 19 years old, so, you see, it was not that long ago that schools were allowing their students to recite this every morning.

I look in schools now and see that people who differ in beliefs have won the argument over eliminating this act. No longer do students walk in on Monday morning to recite a part of America’s history, a sacred part of our culture. No longer do some kids even know the full pledge, and it seems as though they aren’t the only ones forgetting.

Our culture has become so obsessed with every individual wanting to be right and having things the way they want. We are fighting with our neighbors for superiority when none is greater than the other. We are forgetting what our country is supposed to stand for.

Some people want to ignore the Pledge of Allegiance because of the phrase “one nation under God,” and I think that is where our first problem lies. As hate conquers the world, more and more turn from God because they think it is His fault. They begin to loathe Christians, too, because of what they believe. This hate doesn’t just stop with God, either. We want to hate anyone who doesn’t uphold the same opinions as us. The blame goes to Russians, Middle Easterners, Blacks, Whites, presidents, God, police officers, and so many more, but it never goes to our individual selves. We have a hard time admitting that we may be contributing to the madness with our own hate, and isn’t it just so much easier to keep down this path instead of admitting we may be wrong?

I think the true irony here is in one single word: ‘INDIVISIBLE.’ In other words, not able to be divided. Isn’t that funny? The short phrase that is meant to be the motto of our country holds this one word, and here we are doing the exact opposite. To be indivisible we need to stand together. Whether you are Christian, Muslim, Black, White, Mixed, Canadian, Mexican, Japanese, Chinese, British, Russian, whatever it may be, we need to stop this hatred with each other. We need to remember the simple words our founders wrote all those years ago. We need to own up to our own faults and hatred. We need to talk things out and help one another. We are called the United States. Let us unite.

“Alone we can do so little, together we can do so much.” – Helen Keller