ESM student: Teacher berated me for sitting for Pledge of Allegiance

[vlyons]

61. The US flag is empty of inherent self-existence.

I'm sharing with you the great wisdom teaching of Mahayana Buddhism. It is called "shunyata," poorly translated into English as "emptiness." And it goes like this ... All phenomena without exception are empty of independent self-existence. That means that all phenomena without exception arise from previous causes and conditions and are composed of subparts. In the case of the flag, it was woven together with individual threads, which were spun from cotton, which was harvested from a plant, which was previously a seed, and so on. Moreover, the "flag" is composed of threads, which are composed of atoms, which are composed of subatomic particles, and so on ... "American Flag" is a mental construct, an idea, which we humans use for convenience of communicating. And onto the object that we label "flag," different people impute different characteristics that symbolize other mental constructs and emotions. But those characteristics and emotions do not inherently exist in the flag. If that were so, then everyone would experience the same reactions to it. But some people burn it, some cherish and display it, and some are indifferent to it. Your teacher did not respect your point of view, to which you are entitled to hold. In his mind, he was trying to instill his personal sense of patriotism into you. He sure went about it in an extremely oppressive manner. If you were my kid, I'd have a conference with him, and tell him that if he ever humiliates you or another student, I'd be complaining to the principal and the school board, and make sure my complaint was recorded in his personnel file.

Were I you, I would stand as a show of tolerance for other folks' beliefs about the flag. I typically do not pledge "allegiance," as I have other religious vows that I have taken. I assume you know that the pledge of allegiance was a marketing tactic used by a flag manufacturer long ago to sell flags. People get extremely emotional about the flag, and sometimes they cannot control themselves, as emotions over-power their reason.