Compulsory patriotism

It looks like a few junior high kids out in Dilworth, Minn., have the adult world all tied up in knots. It appears that their principal caught them sitting down when the rule book said they should be standing up, and because that standing up time was to coincide with the recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance we've got lawyers, reporters and all manner of the Extremely Concerned weighing in. Meantime, I'm guessing the kids are getting quite a kick out of all the fuss they've managed to cause. Few things are more fun for a 14-year-old than making adults act like fools.
The fact is, those kids were breaking a rule that never should have been written, and once written, never should have been enforced. The Supereme court settled the whole question of kids saying the pledge long ago -- they don't have to. Which is good for the Constitution, good for the pledge and good for patriotism in general.
I've never held public professions of love for God and/or Country in particularly high regard. Every time I see somebody proclaiming loud and long on either topic, the parable relating the prayer of the Pharisee and the publican comes to mind -- that God and country are most sincerely honored in the quiet recesses of mind and soul.
Oh, I have nothing against saying the Pledge before a public meeting or offering grace before a meal -- they are pleasant rituals that remind us that we are community, bound by certain traditions and common understandings -- but merely standing to say the Pledge no more makes a person a patriot than recitation of the words of the Apostles' Creed makes a Christian.
There is no way to make patriotism compulsory -- going through the motions under threat of reprisal is as alien to the spirit of "liberty and justice for all" as the auto-de-fe is to John 3:16.
The kids in dilworth may be catching on to this, but it appears we adults still have a lot to learn.