If You Want a Country to Be Proud Of, Let’s Build One

Guest Opinion by Alicia Haggermaker

Alabama lawmakers are proposing new constitutional amendments that would require public schools to broadcast The Star-Spangled Banner weekly and conduct daily recitations of the Pledge of Allegiance, alongside policies allowing voluntary prayer and religious readings.

Supporters frame these measures as efforts to restore patriotism, unity, and respect for American values.

But here’s the uncomfortable truth:

You don’t create pride by mandating performances.

You create pride by building systems worth believing in.

What we are watching is not a resurgence of civic confidence. It’s a substitution — ritual in place of repair.

Rituals don’t fix broken systems

If patriotic rituals worked on their own, we wouldn’t be facing:

• chronic teacher shortages
• unsafe, overheated school buses
• underfunded employee health insurance
• rising classroom disorder
• growing distrust between families and institutions

Those are not symbolic problems. They are functional ones.

When institutions stop delivering outcomes, they often pivot to optics. Flags. Songs. Slogans. Loyalty displays. It looks decisive from the outside, even while nothing material improves on the inside.

That’s not leadership. That’s stagecraft.

We’ve seen this play before

Anyone who has worked in corporate America will recognize the pattern. Leadership announces a “positive culture initiative.”

• Posters go up.
• Slogans get rolled out.
• HR sends emails.
• Metrics track “engagement.”

And when people react honestly — confusion, frustration, disbelief — the unspoken directive becomes clear:

Fix your face.

Your reaction is the problem, not the conditions that caused it.

This is how performative systems operate. They don’t want truth. They want compliance that looks good in reports, photos, and talking points.

Schools should not be arenas for forced performance

Children are not props in a values campaign.

Even when participation is labeled “voluntary,” pressure is real — especially when funding penalties and administrative consequences hang in the background. Students feel it. Teachers feel it. School boards feel it.

What kids learn in these environments isn’t patriotism.

They learn presentation management.

Say the words. Hit your mark. Don’t disrupt the narrative.

That’s not civic education. That’s training for conformity.

Real patriotism isn’t fragile

A country confident in itself doesn’t need to mandate visible loyalty.

It earns it.

People are proud of:

• schools that are safe, functional, and well-supported
• teachers who are respected and paid like professionals
• systems that tell the truth about challenges instead of masking them
• leaders who fix problems instead of decorating them

That kind of pride shows up naturally. No broadcast required.

Fear-based governance always looks like this

When leaders are afraid of fragmentation, they don’t always address the cause. They manage the appearance of unity instead.

That’s why these proposals feel less like celebration and more like anxiety.

Less like confidence and more like control.

History is clear on this point:

Rituals enforced under strain don’t unify people. They breed resentment, cynicism, and quiet withdrawal.

If lawmakers want unity, here’s the hard path

It’s not glamorous, but it works:

• address teacher shortages with pay and autonomy
• fix transportation and infrastructure issues
• stabilize employee health insurance
• invest in classroom support and discipline reform
• stop using blunt funding threats as a management tool

That’s how trust is rebuilt.

The choice is simple

If you want a country to be proud of, let’s make one.

Do the work. Fix the systems. Earn the loyalty.

If you want performance art, just say that.

But don’t confuse mandated rituals with patriotism — and don’t ask children and educators to pretend otherwise.

Because pride can’t be ordered.

And allegiance can’t be staged.

Alicia Boothe Haggermaker is a lifelong resident of Huntsville, Alabama, and a dedicated advocate for health freedom. For more than a decade, she has worked to educate the public and policymakers on issues of medical choice and public transparency. In January 2020, she organized a delegation of physicians and health freedom advocates to Montgomery, contributing to the initial draft of legislation that became SB267.

Opinions do not reflect the views and opinions of ALPolitics.com. ALPolitics.com makes no claims nor assumes any responsibility for the information and opinions expressed above.

Source:

https://abc3340.com/news/local/alabama-bills-propose-patriotic-and-religious-changes-in-schools