Nationalism As A Manifestation Of Patriotism In America

Did you know the pledge of allegiance was written to sell American flags? The pledge is something we all learned as a child but, as a child we don’t know the background or history of it. Francis Bellamy wrote the pledge of allegiance in 1892 for the 400th year anniversary for Columbus Day. The pledge looked slightly different for today’s version back then it was "I pledge allegiance to my flag and to the Republic for which it stands--one nation indivisible--with liberty and justice for all." It wasn't until 1954 until they updated it by adding “Under God” into the pledge. Many people were not happy with it and wanted it removed. In schools around America it is required for teachers and staff to recite the pledge. It’s now 2019 and the pledge is still the same version from 1954 and still today many people are having problems with schools trying to force the pledge upon children even though it is illegal. The U.S has a toxic patriotism issue that is dividing our country. This is wrong because schools are trying to push hyper patriotism, it’s causing racist attacks, and it will eventually lead to war.

Some people say that when you are saying the pledge of allegiance or singing the National Anthem you are learning to appreciate what it means to be an American. In the U.S we have freedom and freedom of speech so we can express ourselves freely unlike some countries. This is a strong country filled with many different races and we people come here they develop our rights so when we recite the pledge or sing the national anthem we feel proud and grateful to be able to be ourselves and be free. A black muslim named Ibtihaj Muhammad moved to the U.S as a child and lived her life as most americans and when she was standing on the Olympic podium she felt proud, “Seeing my country's flag rise above me, I felt an overwhelming sense of triumph, defying society's limited expectations, breaking barriers placed in front of me because of the color of my skin and my faith. At the highest level of sport, I proudly represented, competed and medaled for my country” (Wire 2). Seeing the Aamerican flag she appreciated her freedom she got from living in america. However, they are wrong because during the pledge or national anthem other people feel that most of their rights are getting violated and that they are getting mistreated. Many people don’t participate in the pledge or anthem for many reasons one of which is the mistreatment of people of color people and another is religion. So some don’t feel proud to be american or welcomed during the pledge or anthem because we should know the U.S as the country of freedom and equality but most of the time we don’t see that.

Patriotism in America is a big part in the lives of officers and it can control their mind and block out humanity. In training they are trained to act like the suspect is threatening their family. “Officer Sean Williams and his colleagues were “taught to keep in mind that ‘the suspect wants a body count’ and therefore officers should immediately engage a would-be gunman with ‘speed, surprise and aggressiveness” (Holland 1). They are trained to shoot first and ask questions later, but in many situations that shouldn’t be the case. In 2014 John crawford was shot and killed outside of Walmart in Ohio. He was holding a BB gun he grabbed from the shelf and that led police officers to believe he was an active shooter. Training someone to become an officer is is very important and should be taking very seriously. But since there is no national standard for training them they are trained differently. “There are no national standards for training police, and the amount and quality of their instruction varies from agency to agency” (Holland 1). Not all officers will get trained on how to de-escalate a conflict, but most agencies offer continual training with firearms.

Nationalism can cause young Americans to have negative views towards other countries and cultures. After 9/11 many americans wanted to show their patriotism by being violent towards South Asian, Hindu, Sikh, Muslim, and Arab Americans. People started looking at them with suspicion and guilt, so they separated themselves from others because they felt singled out. The violence to worried everyone and parents feared for their children because of the bullying at school and harassment on the internet. Since there are so many people in the U.S who are from different cultures, racist americans started taking matters into their own hands and started killing strangers and even neighbors. The first killing after 9/11 was in Arizona and a Sikh gas station owner was killed by a racist gunman. As he was getting arrested he screamed, “I am a patriot! I stand for America all the way!” (Raghunathan 1). People were so scared for their lives that they didn’t even want to go and collect their mail from the mailbox. Hate groups formed and started attacking communities. A white supremacist killed three men after they tried to stop him from harassing a muslim man. During his arraignment he said, “You call it terrorism; I call it patriotism!” (Raghunathan 1). The silence of the president during this time made it seem as if this killing were heroic and patriotic.