MOYERS: "The next time you say the Pledge of Allegiance – remember: it’s a lie. A whopper of a lie."

[mwooldri]

44. As an Englishman in NC...

I stand and be respectful at events where the pledge is said. At the end I say "God save the Queen". There is no English or British pledge of allegiance as such, except public officials and members of the armed forces do pledge allegiance to the monarchy. IMO it is a simpler "pledge" and quite truthful, if you are a believer in a God. "Long live the Queen" would be acceptable too. This simple "pledge" is why members of Sinn Fein who are elected to Westminster do not take their seats.

Liberty and justice for all in the USA? With one of the worlds largest incarceration rate, and in some places people end up going from school to prison for their entire lives - their "crime" is a poor upbringing, horrible schools, or simply one single bad decision puts them in a youth detention centre and because the way that place is run it leads to more crime. Also there isn't a concept of a "spent" criminal record in which after x years that minor crime is removed from your record. The silly mistake made at age 18 can come to haunt you at 50. The crime was done and the punishment was served. Shouldn't this minor issue be removed from the record at some point?

Although I live and work in the USA with my wife and two sons, it is my conscience that bars me from going for American citizenship. That and the $1,000 fee... Though a green card at present is $500 to renewal or replace.

America is a country with so much promise. There are freedoms but when we have a large number of elected officials who state that the country was founded on Christian principles and don't appear to understand Jesus the way I do... they don't know the hymn that I used to song at school (remember church and state are not totally separate in England) called "When I needed a neighbour, were you there... were you there? ...and the creed and the color and the name don't matter were you there?" And it goes on like that .... it makes me think that the powers that be are too me, me, me... when we need we, we, we. I want to make a difference in this adopted country of mine but when I am in this state of health it is hard to do anything. I am reduced to the status of a keyboard warrior.

Sorry for rambling on but I needed to get this off my chest and DU is about a safe a place I can do it for now.

Mark.