Think back to when our country was begun. The ideals that first started our nation is what our country should stands for, but hardly does now. Over time, with us cruelly taking the Native Americans lands away with no return, thinking of slavery as normal, and countlessly lying to our citizens, the United States has been corupted over a long period of time. Even with most of those things gone, we still see our morals and ideals at the worst they have ever been. Because of deception and near treason at the top levels of government, and citizens never knowing when they are being watched, I will not say the words of the Pledge.
So why do I stand? Purely because of the men and women who have died for our country. The word patriotic doesn't mean to me aimlessly obeying a higher order just because you are well off. I see true patrioticism as those minutemen who gave their lives to save a new country from the hands of imperialism. So until we go back to a government purely "for the people," you can expect silence from me at the start of every school day.