Deedon's Blog

“I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one Nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”

When was the last time you stood up, placed your hand over your heart (or saluted, military style) and recited the above pledge?

Government schools start the day with the pledge (as well as many school events).

Many sporting events start with the pledge.

Court sessions may start with the pledge.

Congressional sessions open with the pledge.

Local government meetings – city and county council, planning commission, etc. – usually start with the pledge.

Political meetings often start with the pledge.

Why do we do this and what does it mean? In fact, where did the pledge of allegiance come from? Let’s start with a little history of the pledge.

Francis Bellamy wrote the pledge in 1892. Bellamy was the cousin of author Edward Bellamy. Edward Bellamy wrote a best selling book titled Looking Backward from 2000 to 1887 which was published in 1888. Looking Backward was published in every major language of the day. It is the story of Julian West, a man who wakes up in the year 2000 from a hypnotic trance (he was in the trance since 1887) to find himself in a socialist society – a military socialist government. Edward Bellamy considered this a utopian society. Edward and his writings influenced his cousin who agreed that a military socialist government would be a better world then the ‘inequities’ of a country with freedom and liberty at its root.

Both of the Bellamys felt that the government should run the schools. This is something that was starting to happen. Schools were not and are not a part of the federal government’s responsibility. Neither schools nor education are even mentioned in the Constitution. However, some (probably most) of the state constitutions take on the responsibility of providing education for the children of said state. But that is another topic.

Francis Bellamy was involved in the October 12, 1892, Columbus Day celebration, This was the 400th Anniversary of the discovery of America. James Upham was an employee of a Boston publishing firm which published “The Youth’s Companion” magazine. Upham’s uncle, Daniel Ford, was the owner and editor. This was one of the most widely distributed magazines of the era. It was in this magazine that the Pledge of Allegiance was first printed (on September 8, 1892). Ford claimed that Upham (and the staff of the magazine) wrote the pledge while Francis Bellamy claimed credit for it. I have found no proof to back either side, however, my inclination is to believe Bellamy was the author of the pledge.

Author or not, Bellamy promoted that the pledge should be recited in schools every morning. “The Youth’s Companion” agreed with the concept and also promoted it. It was first recited in schools on October 12 for the Columbus Day celebration. It then became a daily ritual in the schools throughout the country. Bellamy, being the socialist that he was, wanted the children to pledge allegiance to the government (as represented by the flag). He wanted them to acquire a loyalty to the flag (thus also to the government) so it would be second nature for them to accept any and all edicts of the government without question.

The original salute to the flag was a military salute followed by extending the arm straight out toward the flag. This was practiced until World War II when the hand over the heart was instituted as the new salute for the flag. The switch was made because of the similarity of the original salute to the Nazi salute. If fact, it was the Nazis who had borrowed the salute from the U.S.

Now back to the pledge itself. As originally written and published, it was only 22 words long. It read:

“I Pledge Allegiance to my Flag and the Republic for which it stands, one nation indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”

Bellamy intended for this to be a pledge that could be used in any country. He desired all nations to be socialist and all people to be soldiers to their respective governments. Soldiers who would not question any government order or command.

In 1923 the first National Flag Conference was held in Washington, D.C. Here it was noted that immigrants might be confused with the words “my flag” so it was changed to read:

“I Pledge Allegiance to the Flag of the United States, and the Republic for which it stands, one nation indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”

One year later it was changed slightly to add “of America.” It now read:

“I Pledge Allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America, and the Republic for which it stands, one nation indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”

Then, in 1954, during the Eisenhower administration it was decided to add the controversial phrase “under God” to the pledge. This was done during the beginning of the cold war which was, of course, being fought with the USSR, a nation whose leadership consisted of atheists. So adding “under God” distinguished us as a God fearing nation from those “atheist communists”. That was the last change to date and the pledge is now recited as shown at the beginning of this article. It is still recited in most elementary schools at the start of each school day.

Please note that in my research I found variations in three areas: 1) the phrase: ‘and to the Republic’ would sometimes appear without the word to: ‘and the Republic’; 2) capitalization varied from source to source; and 3) punctuation varied from source to source. I cannot be certain which versions were correct so I chose one format and stuck with it. That I may not be historically correct in these matters is not of concern as none of it plays into the point of this article.

The purpose of this article is not to bring you a history of this pledge, although having the history will, hopefully, help you to see the point to be made now. The point in question is WHY do we say the pledge at all?

The pledge was written by a man who wanted the schoolchildren of the nation to become staunch ‘patriots’. Dictionary.com (http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/patriot) gives three definitions for the word patriot. The third is the capitalized word and defines a U.S. Army missile. For our purposes we can ignore definition number three. The first definition is:

a person who loves, supports, and defends his or her country and its interests with devotion.

This definition is the kind of patriot Bellamy wanted to come out of the government schools. This would give the country citizens who would do as told and never question the authority of the government. This is NOT conducive to the liberty spoken of in the pledge.

The second definition is:

a person who regards himself or herself as a defender, esp. of individual rights, against presumed interference by the federal government.

This describes what I consider a true patriot to be. Consider these three quotes.

“Patriotism consists not in waving the flag, but in striving that our country shall be righteous as well as strong.” James Bryce – Author of The American Commonwealth.

“A patriot must always be ready to defend his country against his government.” Edward Abbey – Author of The Monkey Wrench Gang and Desert Solitaire.

“There is much more to being a patriot and a citizen than reciting the pledge or raising a flag.” Jesse Ventura.

I will go a step further and say that reciting the pledge to the flag does NOT contribute to the making of a patriot.

So to summerize the above, the pledge of allegiance to the flag was designed to make us all patriots of the kind Francis Bellamy wanted, and to do so from the early days of elementary school. But that type of patriot, in my opinion, is not a true patriot. A true patriot will pledge allegiance to the country, not a flag – not a government. A true patriot will often find she or he must fight against the government because it is not following its own rule book. That rule book for us is the United States Constitution.

Early in July of this year (2009) I published an article here titled “Right or Wrong!” You can read it here: http://derbysblog.com/blog/?m=200907 There I wrote of the idea that a person should not automatically give full allegiance to a political party or a country regardless of whether it was right or wrong. This is an example of what I am saying here. If your country is wrong, work to correct it. Don’t blindly accept something just because your president has said it is so. This, regardless of whether the president is from your party or a different party.

So what should we pledge our allegiance to?

How about the rule book: the United States Constitution. What? Pledge allegiance to a book? Yes! Well, actually it is a document which is often found in book form. In fact, if you want a pocket version of this document, reply to this article. When you sign up to reply you will need to leave your email address. It does not need to appear in your comment so it will not be made public. Make a comment about the article, if you wish, but be sure to state you would like a Pocket Constitution. Don’t be misled by the ‘Pocket’ as this is the unabridged Constitution of these united States of America. If you request one, I’ll contact you via your email and send this most important document to you at no charge. I have a limited supply so just one to a household, please. This offer is good only while my supply lasts.

Again, back to the pledge. Every political official of the United States, and so far as I know, every political official of any state, county, city or other governmental body, takes an oath to support the Constitution. So does every member of the military and every member of any police department in the country. If I am wrong about any of these groups, I can only say that they SHOULD be required to take such an oath. What does the oath have to do with the pledge? The oath is, in essence, a pledge to the Constitution.

Now if you pay attention to the federal laws being passed, and that have been passed for at least the last century, you will find many (read MOST) are not permitted by the Constitution. This is not limited to the federal level but the Constitution does allow the states to do many things that are denied to the federal government. Perhaps I’ll write a future article about the Constitution but for the time being you can study up on it by reading – no, by studying — some good books. I will recommend three here:

Good to be King – The Foundation of our Constitutional Freedom by Michael Badnarik (The Writer’s Collection – 2004). You will find the entire Constitution is printed in the back of this book.

The Revolution – A Manifesto by Ron Paul (Grand Central Publishing – 2008).

Why Government Doesn’t Work by Harry Browne (St. Martin’s Press – 1995).

If your library does not have these books, ask the librarian to get them. Or better yet purchase them. If you can’t find them new try Amazon.com for a used copy. When you have read the Constitution and studied the meaning of the various articles and amendments, you will find out how much our government has strayed from the rule book. It is our job to put it back on track. Not an easy task but one that must be done for our future, our children’s future, our grandchildren’s future and beyond.

Several years ago I thought about this idea of a pledge to the Constitution. I don’t recall if I thought about it because I ran across the idea on the internet or if I looked on the internet because I had thought about the idea. So I am not taking credit for being the first to have the idea. I do recall that I did find something although I don’t recall if what I found actually included such a pledge.

More recently I repeated the search but could not find the original link from a decade or so ago. I did find another pledge to the Constitution. It was written by a man named John Girardeau and can be found at: http://www.legalizefreedom.net/. The pledge is a good one. If you like it you can pledge your support to it by signing on at the Legalize Freedom link. As of this writing, more than 250 people have done so.

My own version of a Pledge of Allegiance to the Constitution was written before my recent search of the web, but Mr. Girardeau’s version was written before mine was finalized. (I actually started doing this two or three times over the last decade or so but never finished until recently.) Although there is nothing in Mr. Girardeau’s version that I object to, I am going to stick with my version because I think it is cleaner and a bit more compact. If I understand it correctly, Mr. Girardeau considers his pledge to the Constitution to supplement the pledge to the flag. I consider mine a replacement for the pledge to the flag.

To pledge allegiance to a flag is only indoctrination – especially for school children. To pledge allegiance to the Constitution is to promise to support what the country stands for. Therefore I would suggest that the pledge to the flag be discontinued entirely. In its place I would like to see the pledge to the Constitution be recited — but not by school children and not at sporting events. Having school children recite any pledge still amounts to indoctrination. Teach them about the Constitution but don’t force feed a pledge to them. There is no value, in my opinion, to recite pledges at sporting events.

So when, where, and by whom should the pledge to the Constitution be recited? Every officer of the law and all military personnel should recite it daily. It should be recited by the judge, jury and lawyers preceding every trial. Every elected official at all levels of government as well as every bureaucrat should recite it prior to starting any official business each and every day that they do the people’s business. This includes the president, governors, mayors, congress, state legislators, city and county councils, etc. Perhaps this will help them keep the limitations of the Constitution in mind as they pass laws, ordinances, rules and judicial decisions.

As for me, from now on when at a public meeting where the pledge to the flag is recited, I will be (perhaps silently) reciting this:

“I pledge allegiance to the Constitution of these united States of America and to the Republic which it created, one nation of independent and sovereign states, with liberty and justice for all.”

For those who believe that pledging allegiance to anything is in violation of their religious beliefs, I would never ask them to violate their faith principles. For them I suggest a variation that can be recited in unison with the above version:

“I affirm to support the Constitution of these united States of America and the Republic which it created, one nation of independent and sovereign states, with liberty and justice for all.”

Tags: Bellamy, Constitution, Edward Bellamy, Flag, Francis Bellamy, Government Schools, Looking Backward, Pledge of Allegiance, Pledge to the Constitution., Pledge to the Flag, The Youth's Companion

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 25th, 2009 at 7:51 pm and is filed under Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.