I'm American and this is weird to me. I still remember, about half way through my freshman year of High School, I had a real weird night and thought about it. And it's not only the pledge, it's every extension of it: military draft, taxes, the laws I don't agree with, etc. I didn't sign up for this, I wasn't even given a choice. It's almost some sort of of patriotic slavery. Yet, we're basically taught to not question it, and just follow suit.

Now obviously, more of my deeper thoughts about it came over time, and the conclusion of that night wasn't pretty simplistic, but I really did question most of it. In retrospect, we are defended by a lot of the liberties on the positive of our position, but even those can falter.

The next day, I decided I was going to question it. Every day in home room we would recite the pledge. Now I was respectful, I stood with everyone else during it, but I kept my hands to my side and remained silent. I wasn't trying to cause a scene or in some way bring the attention to me. And my teacher did notice.

Considering this was the AP American History teacher, the response I expected to receive was quite different than the one I did. He pulled me out of the room and didn't even give me a chance to speak, and instead just went off on how disrespectful I was being and how I should be ashamed. It was not the best experience, and in an all-boys private school, he had the freedom to say pretty much whatever he felt like saying.

I still find it pretty scary. It's like we're a cult.