We said the Pledge of Allegiance every day in my school. Only towards the end of my senior year did it become a problem. Kids started rising up . . . and getting detention and then suspension. Apparently if you don't say it, you're an un-American commie-pinko faggot bastard or something. And if you DO say it, then you're a Patriotic hero of my little ponies and stars spring from your twat dispensing truth, justice, and seasonally appropriate confetti.
I didn't really care one way or the other. It was just another bullshit part of school and one of the least irritating ones at that.
I have my Junior High Principal to thank for cementing my will like no one else ever could.
By 8th grade I had decided I would sit for the pledge.
By 9th I grew the balls to do it. There were a few of us. I don't know I could have done it on my own. There was a gulf war and stuff--it made it easier.
My Principal was not pleased. He called us out in the middle of a school assembly. Accused us of being disrespectful. Trying to show off. Something along those lines. It fucking sucked.
I learned then and there that I had a choice between sucking it up and being a fucking hypocrite, or sucking it up and being derided and shamed. He didn't cement my will to never be a hypocrite. He cemented my will to suck it up.
Fuck anybody who forces that choice on kids.