I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America

I called my sister to let her know that our old high school had come to play some patriotic songs for some arriving troops off a flight that I was working yesterday. Leave it to North American to run off schedule one way or another.....The flight arrived an hour and a half early. So....without knowing it, The Arundel High School Marching Band was playing the Star Spangled Banner to the arriving passengers from British Airways. Hey...God Bless America and welcome. Because my sister is a very left wing liberal, the concept of anything pro American pride ends up directly in her cross hairs. Though we did not dive into a massive debate on the subject, she did make a comment that struck me and left a bizarre expression on my face.

"The Pledge of Allegiance is brain washing."

At what point did teaching children pride in their country become dangerous brain washing. Kids in many schools across the country still recite the Pledge every morning. I fully support this because national pride is obviously very healthy for a nation. I don't care if you are a proud citizen of Kuwait, a proud citizen of Norway or god forbid, a proud citizen of the USA....the point is, national pride is a GOOD THING. Along with learning how to wipe one's ass, or how to fold paper bags around a school book to protect it, national pride is something that is learned and therefore must be taught.

It was Adolf Hitler who proved overwhelmingly that low national pride and a little brain washing propaganda can create a very dangerous situation. He took that lack of pride and gave the people something to be proud of....A killing machine that destroyed all of Europe and didn't intend on stopping until he could take over the freaking planet.

So many pseudo liberal intellectuals love to believe that we as a world have come so far, that war is silly, unrealistic and should not exist. They really scare the shit out of me. The message is flawed. There may be millions of people and dozens of countries who are anti war....and that's Freaking GREAT. However, there are still and will always be aggressive assholes (Currently...Iran is on this list) who are dangerous, ready to pick fights and kill for their own insane causes. The world has always been this way and will continue to be like this as long as Human Beings run the show. Rather than letting emotions guide my views on where the world is going....I'll keep my feet on the ground and my head based in reality....History is a better teacher than what feels good mentally. Teaching the message that "national pride is bad, war is unrealistic, we've come so far as a whole" is down right dangerous and irresponsible.

But hey, who am I? I don't love this president, I do believe the war in Iraq was planned poorly from the start and I too crave strong leadership. Does that make me sound like a card carrying Republican as if that is a bad thing in itself and a crime against humanity? I'm not in the military, nor do I like the idea of personally owning a gun, however I support the second amendment. Does that make me a Moderate? Who gives a shit. I love this country and if the time ever came for which it IS possible, that this country came under attack and the daily lives that we all take for granted changes to that of a war zone style lifestyle....I just hope there are enough of us brain washed fools who stand up and fight for our freedom regardless of political affiliation and remember why we said that pledge in the first place.

Totally off subject: I went flying (an wonderful freedom that does not exist in all nations) the other day and thoroughly enjoyed myself. The temperatures were perfect, skies clear and smooth. This time, I figured I would head up to Reading, then back down over Lancaster, over to York....do a few turns over Sheri's head at the dealership and went back to Lancaster. Ahh....So nice.

God Bless America....Damn It!