Where I Pledge Allegiance

I think Independence Day is one of our most, if not the most, important holidays.  It arose from efforts of brave visionaries that boldly renounced their ties to a previous ruler and established their own fledgling model of governance.  Thirteen years later they would frame a durable document that would underlie our nation's fabric for over 222 years.

An old friend of mine posted the Pledge of Allegiance today on Facebook and dared the willing to repost, even with the possibility of "offending others".  There are several criticisms of the Pledge that make sense.  Mandating that people recite a pledge of allegiance does encroach on First Amendment guarantees.  It is also curious that we ask children to pledge allegiance to something that they don't understand.  That is in the brainwashing category unless we teach them about our republic first, then request that they participate in the pledge to it.

Probably the biggest sticking point are the words "Under God".   I completely understand this point, as it flies directly in opposition to the secular Constitution and the Establishment Clause.  These words define that our nation is linked to an omnipotent deity.

Most people that enjoy mixing religion and government (as long as it is their religion) don't realize that these words were not present in the original Pledge. The original was written by a guy named Frances Bellamy in the late 1800's.  I don't remember the specifics, but he was a minister that proposed a pledge to protect immigrants.  The Pledge of Allegiance would be a way for them to show that they were Americans.

American schoolchildren do the "Bellamy Salute", a salute to the flag established in the late 1800's.  Nazis and other goofballs would adopt similar salutes in the 20th century, people were offended, so we changed our salute to the hand over the heart instead.

Somewhere after WWII (that's not the video game for you youngin's out there)  Americans started fearing commies and other outsiders.  That's a whole nutter story.

In response, various groups like the Daughters of the Revolution and the Knights of Columbus started adding the words "under God" to the Pledge when they recited it in the late 1940's.   Soon the religious endorsement started to gain traction, as a contemporary religious fervor countered the void of the godless commies that sought to wreck America (like the gays are trying to do now).

With pressure from religious groups the ever-malleable and history-deprived-feelgood Congress proposed adding the words to the Pledge of Allegiance in 1954.   President Eisenhower signed this into law, and our secular government now had a personal belief added to its fabric.

I'm a purist.  I like Bellamy's original version best.


I pledge allegiance, to My Flag, and to the Republic for which it stands, with liberty, and justice for all. 

That was directly consistent with the founders' plans for our republic.

To me, I think we should not pledge allegiance to a flag, but rather pledge our allegiance to our Constitution, and to the concepts it embodies. That is the root of our republic, not the flag, which is simply a symbol. How about:

I pledge allegiance, to the United States of America, and to the Constitution that guarantees our freedoms, with liberty and justice for all.

That just makes so much more sense.