Anna Cripanuk

ENG 102

Blog #2

    Allegiance of Gratitude

    In, “Braiding Sweetgrass”, by Robin Wall Kimmerer, I can really relate to the emotions portrayed in this story. As I began reading the first page, this sounded somewhat similar to what my mom does in the mornings. As I kept reading, one of the daughters was starting to remind me of someone. The defiance of not standing for the Pledge of Allegiance sounded like me. I too did not feel like I should have o stand for the pledge when I was in middle school. In fact, middle school was the first time I asked myself, “why do I have to stand for the pledge”. With that one question, a million others flooded into my brain. Questions like, “am I required to stand for the pledge?”, “what will happen if I do not stand for the pledge”, and “I wonder if others are asking themselves these same questions”. One day all of my questions came to a halt. As I am standing for the pledge, I look around and someone in my class who was thought of as a “loner” was continuing to stay seated. I was shocked that someone had gone against the norm, and I wasn’t the only one thinking these things. I could hear the teacher kindly ask him to rise for the flag. Josh did not move. I could hear her a second time, “Joshua, please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance”. Everyone in the classroom had their eyes on Josh. I could feel the glares as if they were at me, because I too did not want to stand for the flag. I felt it was a ritual that was unnecessary, and forced. I did not want to be forced to do anything, especially not by the school. I had a hard enough time following concrete rules, and any extra grip on my freedom, I was sure to go my own way. The only teacher that ever forced a student to stand for the pledge was my gym teacher, Mrs. Henderson. Mrs. Henderson would take any opportunity to enforce the rules. When Josh ended up in my gym class the following year, and did'nt stand for the flag? Well, Mrs. Henderson ripped him a new one. As for me, I didn’t wonder any farther after Josh decided not to stand for the flag that math class. The glaring and disgusted looks he received from classmates was enough to keep me standing. I believe that if any school forces students to stand for the flag, they are stripping students of their freedom, and that is just wrong.