COMMENTARY
Pledge has little to do with patriotism
By Kekailoa Perry
Teacher of Hawaiian studies at the University of Hawai'i-Manoa
When I was in grade school, we spent the first 20 minutes of the morning lining up in the school yard facing the American and Hawaiian flags. We recited the Pledge of Allegiance and sang "The Star-Spangled Banner" followed by "Hawai'i Pono'i." Back then, I didn't really know the significance of what was going on. All I knew was that I could put my hand on my chest and mimic the others.
Richard Ambo • The Honolulu Advertiser
That's not the way it is for my 7-year-old son, who attends a Hawaiian-language immersion public school. Each morning, the children assemble for their invocation. They chant an oli kahea, then an oli that recognizes the land and district where their school sits. After that, the teachers call out to their students, welcoming them to their school, their place of learning and refuge.
Island schools fly both the Hawaiian and U.S. flags, but some do not require students to recite the Pledge of Allegiance.
As it does at all schools, the Stars and Stripes flies full staff, with the Hawaiian flag slightly below it. Yet, there is no Pledge of Allegiance. Nothing is said about "God." Why? Because the keiki are imbued with a spiritualism that is passed on through their family, not their school.
In traditional Hawaiian society, the mana of Akua was everywhere and in everything. Today, little has changed except that many of us simply stopped believing. Faith cannot be regained through the imposition of a prescribed religion. Faith is rooted in our na'au, that gut feeling that guides us through the good and the bad.
Not everyone in America, including Hawaiians, chose to be "American." Nor is everyone in America Christian. There are Buddhists, Muslims, Hindus, Jews, people of other faiths and atheists. And if they decide they don't want their children to pledge their allegiance to the United States and a Christian God, does that make them unpatriotic or traitors? Of course not.
To suggest that Americans will overcome their fear of terrorism by pledging allegiance to the nation and God is more the result of insecurity than patriotism. Those who believe in God don't necessarily need reminders.
Faith and prayer is comforting, even essential to spiritual well-being. But it can easily be politicized. Who is to say how and to whom we should pray or pledge our allegiance? Certainly not government or the school system.
I'm so happy that my son and his classmates start each school day observing time-honored Hawaiian protocol. The tradition grounds them, reinforces whatever faith they already hold and prepares them for the road ahead.
Every morning and evening, my son reminds me that we need to thank Akua for the many blessings in our life. We pray for family, friends and those less fortunate. We pray for forgiveness and enlightenment. We pray for our kupuna who have passed on and the generation not yet born. And we pray for all nations, especially our Hawaiian nation.
That's the kind of faith a government cannot provide. Akua provides it in the na'au.
