It is time for a national conversation on the continued use of national anthems, our own for instance, and of pledges of allegiance, particularly our own.   The recent brouhaha over the refusal of footballer Colin Kaepernick to stand during the national anthem is a case in point that was discussed in a column for Truthdig by Sonali Kolhatkar entitled “I Have Never Stood Up for the National Anthem—and Never Will”.  Like Kolhatkar, I had never heard of Kaepernick mainly because I have no interest in professional sports or any of the attendant mumbo-jumbo be it in the militaristic ceremony or the crass commercialization .  Kolhatkar goes on to say, “Perhaps bowing in deference to a flag or anthem fulfills some deep, primal need in humans to identify as a tribe that’s bigger and better and stronger than other tribes. Perhaps it satisfies a compulsion much like organized religion does—to find one’s place in a big, dangerous world that often makes no sense. Regardless, like religion, nationalism ought to be optional, a personal choice. If you’re into standing for an anthem written by a man who enslaved black people, and whose verse blatantly exalting slavery is simply swept under the rug, go right ahead. But don’t expect everyone to do so or chastise those who openly refuse to bend to such expectations.”  Now another professional player, Jeremy Lane, has decided to sit (not kneel like Kaepernick) during the anthem.

Alexandra Rosenmann, writing for Alternet.org, says, "It's a common trend, we've seen it before -- someone in America challenges power and the official storyline in a fundamental way, and they become the victims of smear campaigns that call them anti-American. The label many have used to describe everyone from Colin Kaepernick to Donald Trump, just in the past week. But Noam Chomsky believes it's a low blow."  Listen to Chomsky on the video here.

In a similar vein,  we hear from Mike Whitney in Counterpunch, “ Can We Please Get Rid of the Pledge?”.  He opines, “Now I know that many people think the Pledge is simply an affirmation of their respect for the flag, their love for the country, and their gratitude to the men and women who fought in America’s wars. But that’s not what it is. The Pledge is an attempt to impose conformity on the masses and compel them to click their heels and proclaim their devotion to the Fatherland. That’s not how it’s supposed to work in a democracy. In a democracy, the representatives of the state are supposed to pledge their loyalty to the people and to the laws that protect them. That’s the correct relationship between the state and the people. The Pledge turns that whole concept on its head.”

Personally, I like Whitney’s suggestion of a substitute for the pledge of allegiance, the Preamble to the Declaration of Independence.  Think of the atmosphere at councils and legislatures that might begin their sessions by reciting, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.”

Now that sets a tone.