Primate Typings

In response to a poll on Facebook about if children should be forced to say the pledge of allegiance in school, I wrote the following.

I cheerfully offer my allegiance every time it comes up in my presence, but I’d vote no if I cared enough to vote in a Facebook poll.

 It’s bad enough the government rounds up millions of U.S. citizens every weekday and forces them into government buildings where it can lecture them for hours at a time. Giving the government employees the authority to force those citizens to pledge their eternal loyalty to that government is really too much. Especially when someone’s legitimate excuse is often a stupid excuse is someone else’s eyes. Since the determination of legitimate would be made by one government employee or another that means that all too often the government will make the determination that gives itself more power. As a tool for human interaction, law is a sledgehammer, not a scalpel.

 Better to leave the issue to the pledgers and their parents rather that the teachers or the courts.