Our nation has come a long way since the late 1700’s, we have undergone a lot changes since then which were made possible by sacrifices of all sizes that we would have not advanced without. The Pledge of Allegiance represents our people’s patriotism to our nation and the home and ideas our ancestors worked hard to make real. It concerns me that my generation and future generations will not stand for the pledge or recite it, which will effectively weaken America because of the lack of patriotism.

Ever since 1942 the Pledge of Allegiance has been a part of every student in every grades life, earning itself a significant place in our nation’s culture. It put a moment in everyone’s school day where we all stated our confidence and belief in America, something most of us share in common. If we were to just drop it we would be losing a great amount of patriotism from generations now and later. And if more than half of people in America stop standing for and or reciting the Pledge, there would be no point to having it since the whole meaning of it is show that we the citizens of America believe in our nation as a whole. Weakening our country for one's own sense of pride is not a valid reason to not say the Pledge of Allegiance.

We should talk about why people feel like they shouldn’t stand for or say the pledge, as it is obviously a problem we are causing for ourselves by turning a blind eye to those citizens who need help. Some people, like african americans, latinos and hispanics, feel like the nation doesn’t support them or respect them enough so why would they respect and support it. Other people who don’t support the pledge would be minorities such as LGBTs (Lesbians, Gays, Bis, and Transgenders) who in over half of America are discriminated against, seeing as they are restricted in most places in ways like not being able to marry. Despite these people's reasons for opposing the Pledge of Allegiance, I believe they should stand and recite the pledge to honor and acknowledge our ancestors who fought for the way things are now in America, and all the freedoms we do enjoy.  Race and gender should not matter when it comes to being patriotic and showing belief in what your nation stands for.

I don’t think it is too late for us to make changes so that the Pledge of Allegiance becomes strong again and stays strong for generations to come. We should start showing more support to the minorities of America and stop being insensitive towards the way certain changes affect their lives. An example of an change, an unnecessary decision Donald Trump made it so that a whole minority, the minority being transgenders, cannot serve in the military and if they already are they are dropped from the military. This hurt our military power and a portion of our population had their belief in America damaged and on top of that, if it wasn’t already bad enough, less people say the Pledge because of this and we have lower levels of patriotism in the United States. In the Future our leaders and need to just think about what they say and do before they offend people of their nation, and try to actually see the rationality or irrationality of their actions or words.

If we can’t at the very least just try to acknowledge or remember the efforts our ancestors put into making America a better place for everyone, I don’t think we really deserve those freedoms we enjoy that they earned for us.Like I said earlier, it isn’t too late to change things, it is just that some of the people in charge need to see that they are hurting their people and nation with some of the things they are letting be done. If nothing is done soon, I fear that the Pledge will die and most of our nation’s patriotism with it.