The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution reads: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”
This is American democracy defined. There would be no America without this key amendment. And after reading a recent BDN OpEd, I believe some people may be misled or do not fully grasp the full meaning of this amendment.
No one needs to stand for the Pledge of Allegiance if they don’t want to. It is not a requirement for being a citizen of the United States: America is not a tyranny that mandates every citizen to stand up during the pledge. Freedom of speech isn’t only oral, but it also can be actions. Any American citizen who wants to protest and send a message by not standing for the Pledge of Allegiance has every right to do so.
I served in the Vietnam War. More than 58,000 young American came home in coffins and hundreds of thousands were left disabled and homeless. It took years for Americans to wake up to the fact that Vietnam veterans were not taken care of after they came home. In the 1970s and 1980s, thousands of veterans lined Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, D.C., including the disabled, poor, homeless and begging. America had given up on Vietnam veterans — a sad chapter in American history that still is being fought today.
When facing death in the field of battle, the furthest thing from a soldier’s mind is the First Amendment. This only occurs later in life — if he survives — when he starts thinking why he went there in the first place. Being young at the time, it was idealism for me. Well, that idealism was quickly dispelled when I realized another human was trying to kill me for his own ideological reasons and beliefs.
Yes, I went to Vietnam for my country. I went at a time of youthful bliss, believing I was going there to defend my freedom and country. It was only later that I came to find the Vietnam War was for all the wrong political and ideological reasons — and today, we buy stuff made in Vietnam and they buy stuff made by us. This is no small comfort to the thousands of Vietnam veterans who lie buried in cemeteries all around us and the disabled who still live with the scars of this war. But being much older and hopefully a bit wiser, I believe we went to Vietnam as young men when our country called to defend our great Constitution and the freedoms it embodies, especially the freedom of speech.
No one has to stand for the pledge if they don’t want to. It’s a freedom we still have. If the only way to send a message of protest is by refusing to do so, we have that right. I and millions of other veterans have served and died for this right enshrined in our Constitution. This is ultimate reason veterans have given their lives for our country: the freedom to protest our discontents when other means to do so are not available.
James Chasse is a Vietnam War veteran and retired Department of Defense employee. He lives in St. Agatha.