Commentary by Liz Premo
Atlantic News, Thursday, October 28, 2004
and to the Republic for which it stands:
One nation under God, indivisible,
with liberty and justice for all.”
This pledge (or various versions of it) has been recited by countless numbers of school children. In recent years it has come to the forefront in the media like never before, typically surrounded in controversy.
In fact, within the last few weeks, there’s been the issue of a Seabrook Middle School teacher who reportedly doesn’t stand up for the pledge at the beginning of the school day. It’s also been noted that some of her eighth grade students have followed suit, much to the dismay of other individuals — particularly parents.
The issue has been brought before the Seabrook school board. Though current policy apparently doesn’t require such participation, parents and members of the town’s American Legion Post have voiced their concerns on the matter.
Just what is the problem with the pledge? What is it about this short, 31-word statement that has generated such debate at various times over the last few decades, and especially so in the present?
The Pledge of Allegiance was first penned in 1892 by Francis Bellamy as a call for national unity after the Civil War. Though modifications have been made to Bellamy’s original over the years, the pledge has essentially remained a patriotic oath of dedicated loyalty to the “Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave,” as well as to the flag which represents it all. The Pledge was officially recognized on December 28, 1945 by the United States Congress.
The words “under God” were added in 1954, mainly to distinguish the United States from the atheistic Soviet Union as a nation that worshipped God and not country or the flag it represented. (Not surprisingly, in his Gettysburg Address, Abraham Lincoln used the term “nation, under God” — many years before the wording was officially adopted by Congress.)
It goes without saying that the flag pledge has opened many a public event since the first time it was uttered. Millions and billions of American citizens have unflinchingly and enthusiastically recited its words, without hesitation and without giving their motivation for doing it a second thought.
Reciting the Pledge of Allegiance — hand over the heart, hat off the head, in a gesture of respect — was just simply the right thing to do, and to do otherwise rarely seemed, if ever, to be an option.
Anyone who has ever taken the time to comprehend what it says discovers that the pledge — though simple in its wording — speaks of holding fast to a heartfelt commitment to a wonderfully free and united nation, an America that promises liberty and justice to those who believe in it.
Reciting the pledge is just a small way to show patriotic dedication to a country that offers its citizens so much in so many ways. But as has been seen time and time again, for some of those citizens, the pledge presents a bit of a problem. Just what is the problem? Like anything else, it depends upon who you ask.
In recent years, in particular, there has been some incredible resistance to pledge-reciting. Some individuals refuse to say it for what they claim are religious reasons (the flag is an ungodly idol, for example, and saluting it constitutes worship of an object rather than a deity).
Others, it seems, do not fully comprehend the weight and meaning of the Pledge, and perhaps find reciting it unnecessary, based on their relative lack of understanding.
Still others take issue with the “under God” part because they either don’t believe in God or they feel it’s a case of the state getting a little too cozy with religion.
Whatever.
The way I see it: If you don’t want to recite the Pledge of Allegiance, for whatever personal reason, then don’t. Fortunately, it’s still a free country.
But … please don’t drag the pledge through the courts to try and get it (or a portion of it) declared unconstitutional for whatever ungodly reason. Please don’t infringe upon the rights of other American citizens to proclaim their patriotic loyalty by reciting the Pledge of Allegiance at events both public and private.
And please don’t try to influence impressionable youngsters, who have just as much right to learn it and take its words to heart, as you have claimed the right to completely dismiss those very same words.
There’s nothing wrong with demonstrating allegiance (loyalty, faithfulness, dedication) to the greatest country in the world (America) through saying the pledge. Outside of displaying the Stars and Stripes at all times in every way, proudly reciting the Pledge of Allegiance is probably the simplest thing that can be done to show a collective commitment to this great country we call “home.” And if there was ever a time we needed to show the global community that these United States are really, truly indivisible, the time most certainly is now.