The US Pledge begins, "I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America..." And when I became capable of critical thought, that's where I had to slam on the brakes. I refuse to pledge my allegiance, a sacred matter to me, to a flag - any flag - no matter what someone says it's supposed to represent. Did the Flag represent the highest ideals of the United States when it was being waved in the Sixties, by people who were stomping the bejeezus out of "hippies"? Did it represent the Republic when it was hijacked by the current administration to wave over their pet war?
My allegiance belongs to my country, and to all it can become - but I do not pledge myself to a scrap of cloth, nor to a person who happens to temporarily reside at one of the most famous addresses in the world. My allegiance also belongs to my species, and our worlds, for I fervently believe that if we want to survive for very long at all, we're going to have to spread out from the nest and occupy the rest of our solar system, and (eventually) beyond. To quote Robert Heinlein, "The Earth is too small and fragile a basket for the human race to keep all its eggs in."
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Sodium is a metal that reacts explosively when exposed to water. Chlorine is a gas that'll kill you dead in moments. Together they make my fries taste good.