The CHIMES

Issue date: 3/5/10 Section: Opinion

Throughout grade school and into high school, you are expected to follow the lead of others by reciting the pledge of allegiance in support of your country, and hope for a bright future. I don't know if it was different for others, but at my high school the only person actually reciting it was the principal over the intercom. It wasn't the fact that we were trying to be disrespectful to the faculty and staff, it's that the actions of government caused problems for each of us. These problems didn't just effect the teens in our community, but our parents and those we love. These decisions meant that it was nearly impossible to embrace the words of our founding fathers, and have a sense of "national pride."

The corrupt nature of our government starts from the politicians, who decided long ago it was much more lucrative to vote for their pocketbooks than support the welfare of the average human. By voting with their wallets, it does nothing but drive the working class deeper into debt. It is clearly evident that by raising taxes you will create more revenue for government spending, but by bailing out big business with our tax dollars then giving out bonuses in the mean time is why I have a severe lack of "national pride."

No matter what sporting event you attend, it is almost routine to sing the National Anthem together in harmony with the rest of the crowd. I think that is the one time in our lives that we really embrace our nation and what we have accomplished. We embrace the people in our lives affected by the decisions of our government. It is during this one moment where those goose bumps that run down our spines embrace this unity. Everyone is affected by the government differently, but it is common fact that our level of national pride is solely affected by the actions of those in power.

There are a lot of people I personally know that are serving in America's Armed Forces and assorted branches of the military. It would be impossible to live the way we do without their efforts, because the freedoms we enjoy are difficult to maintain. But with the rising cost of higher education and a rise in the fraudulent and corrupt actions of those in power, I have found it ever-more difficult to have hope for the future of our nation, and national pride.

American author Edward Abbey once said, "a patriot must always be ready to defend his country against his government." Voltaire once said, "It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong." Theodore Roosevelt himself said, "No people ever yet benefited by riches if their prosperity corrupted their virtues."

With unemployment on the rise, the nation is in an economic crisis, the working and lower class struggles more and more every day. It starts to make you realize the corrupt nature of our government that we are all aware of but are unable to affect may mean the inevitable end of our "national pride".

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