Went on a little rant at the end of it...heh heh. Hey, you were supposed to give your opinion, right? ^_~
Minersville School District v. Gobitis
Patriotism has always been highly regarded in America as one of the most incredibly noble and moral values a person can have. In a lot of instances, if someone is not patriotic enough (or at all), their opinions and beliefs will be brushed aside as if they do not matter, or worse, they will be condemned for the fact that they do not love their country more than themselves. Such was the case in Minersville School District v. Gobitis in 1940.
By this point in time, most states required by law that school children salute the American flag in the morning on school days. Although the law itself did not make saluting compulsory, schools in areas with high levels of patriotism decided to force students to salute the flag anyway, whether they wanted to or not. Of course, this raised some problems—especially among Jehovah’s Witnesses, who are forbidden by their religion to worship images, which means they cannot salute the flag. Two students, Lillian and William Gobitis, who were Jehovah’s witnesses, refused to salute the flag, and were promptly expelled. Since school attendance was compulsory, their parents had to send them to private school, which cost quite a pretty penny. The parents, feeling that because the school had forced their children to leave because their religion did not allow them to salute the flag, decided to sue the school to pay for their tuition expenses.
Two lower courts held in favor of the Gobitis family, and the Minersville School District filed for an appeal with the Supreme Court. This became the first flag salute case ever to reach as high a court as this. The Court ultimately decided in favor of the school, with a vote of eight to one. They reasoned that this was because they could not make themselves the "school board of the country", and that the flag was an important piece of national unity and could be a part of legislative initiatives designed "to promote in the minds of children who attend the common schools an attachment to the institutions of their country", i.e. brainwashing the young into worshiping America. Or, at least, that’s they way they made it sound.
After this, there was an uproar. Many people were strongly opposed to the Court’s decision, and some judges began to have second thoughts about the matter. Also, accordingly, crimes and prejudice against Jehovah’s Witnesses raised dramatically, because human beings historically cannot tolerate anyone who is different from them, especially when said people are brought into the public light. However, later on, a case just like the Gobitis case was brought before the court, and the former decision was overturned.
Extreme patriotism, such as evidenced in school districts where there is compulsory flag saluting, is incredibly dangerous and in fact the opposite of what this country is supposed to be. Forcing people to salute the flag seems rather scary to me, like a small and very discreet form of fascism. Love of country before love of self? Loving the ideals of your country is one thing—but America just happens to be where you live. I find people that are so "devoted" to their country that they will support it no matter what it does, and no matter how corrupt its leaders are or how bad a direction the country is going in, are sickening, frightening, and bad citizens. Yes, that’s right.Bad citizens, and a setback to the human race in general. Supporting anything unfailingly and without question makes you an idiot, a sheep, and a setback to the human race in general.
Forcing children to salute the flag is forcing them to love their country—you are in fact making a decision for them. It’s brainwashing. Forcing Jehovah’s Witnesses, whose religion forbids them from worshiping images, to salute the flag, is wrong, and expelling them when they refuse to comply with your requests is disgusting. Is there no freedom of religion in this country? Is there no freedom of speech? Are we allowed to not love our country with a disturbing and dangerous fervor? One of the greatest things about America is...we can say whatever we want about it. And you know what? You can complain about it all you want, how we’re unpatriotic, ungrateful little worms, and challenge us to move to some other country if we don’t like it, but the fact is we get to say whatever we like. It’s guaranteed right there, in the Constitution. Those who seem to think civil liberties are rather a “side note” to the Constitution, instead of the whole point, are the ones who are the real threat to America, not the people who don’t like what’s going on and want things to change, or the people who won’t salute the flag because they don’t want to. It’s time for some people to wake up and smell the coffee. The fact that there are people here who don’t want to be Supa-Patriotic™ all the time, and can talk about that freely, is what should be making you so patriotic in the first place. We are free to do and say what we want here. Get used to it.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}