A school board from the conservative state of North Dakota has decided to strip away the Pledge of Allegiance. For years, the board recited the Pledge in honor of the United States of America and the flag before starting their board meetings. However, recently, the school board voted to do away with the Pledge because the phrase “under God” explicitly does not include all faiths out there in the community.
Fargo School Board voted 7 to 2 to drop the Pledge of Allegiance ahead of their board meetings on Tuesday. The members of the school board felt that the Pledge, with the words “under God’ included in it, was not an inclusive thing of all people in the community.
Back in the spring, the Fargo School Board voted to uphold the Pledge during their meetings. However, a recent election saw four new board members elected to the school board, so Vice President Seth Holden decided to bring the decision back before the board for a second vote, and this time, he was able to successfully get the school board to vote to do away with the Pledge ahead of their meetings.
Board member Robin Nelson spoke to Daily Mail about the decision and how they are not happy that the Pledge has gone the way of the dinosaurs. In a statement provided to Daily Mail, Nelson, who was one of two people to vote in favor of keeping the Pledge, said that the reason the others voted it out was that it violated the school board’s “equity inclusion” clause as it did not represent all religions including those with multiple gods or people who consider themselves atheist or agnostic.
According to a published article in Inforum, Seth Holden (above) said that the word “God” is capitalized in the Pledge because it refers to the “Judeo-Christian God, and therefore, it does not include any other faith such as Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, all of which are practiced by our staff and students.”
Holden insists that he is not personally against the Pledge, but he believes that it does not respect the lives of Fargo’s diverse student body and their families.
Nevertheless, Nelson (above left) and fellow board member Nikkie Gullickson (above right) believe that the Pledge should still be recited ahead of Fargo’s school board meetings.
“I did not want that right removed from me,” Nelson told DailyMail.com. “Our job is to focus on the education of the children.”
Former board member David Paulson, who failed to win reelection, had originally brought the board to vote on the Pledge during the spring session.
“The Pledge isn’t a show of our patriotism, it’s an affirmation of our commitment and our loyalty to the greater cause, and that greater cause is freedom,” he said, according to Inforum.
What are your thoughts on this issue? Do you think that school board members should have the right to strip away the Pledge of Allegiance because it does not represent all religions? Or do you believe that the Pledge should still be recited in honor of the United States of America?
