Francis Bellamy and the Socialist Origins of the Pledge

[Austin Willard Wright]

http://www.vineyard.net/vineyard/history/pdgech3.htm

http://www.vineyard.net/vineyard/history/pdgech4.htm

[Austin Willard Wright]

The pledge was written by a man who was to the left of Hillary Clinton. Comments?

[Drawsing]

I have researched this in the past. Yes, Bellamy was a misguided socialist. The pledge, however, has grown beyond him.

[newsperson999]

SIGN THE PETITION 8700 sigs and growing fast here

[Austin Willard Wright]

To endorse a pledge written by lover of socialism?

[Austin Willard Wright]

Yes, it has "grown" so much that even Gray Davis and Hillary Clinton enthusiastically endorse devoting class time to a teacher led pledge. Bellamy, the misguided socialist, would be pleased that not only the pledge but other forms of one-sided indoctrination (such as diversity training) are so prevalent in the public schools. He was a pioneer in this regard.

[anniegetyourgun]

It was a good start by this liberal socialist pastor who denounced his church affiliations in the end anyway. It was much improved in the last change, IMHO. Apparently it was the Knights of Columbus who lobbied the hardest to have it recognized in the form we have had it for these many decades. I hope it never changes.

[1rudeboy]

Comments?

Yeah, who cares?

[traditionalist]

Just because the author was a socialist does not make the pledge socialist. What within its content do you find socialist? Men with bad intentions sometimes can unwittingly produce something good.

[Kaslin]

You might want to read this thread and especially the first reply

http://freerepublic.com/focus/news/707735/posts

[Austin Willard Wright]

Read the articles. As the author shows in detail, this was the original goal. I don't think so freepers would be so charitable if Gore or Hillary (who are much less socialist than Bellamy) penned such a document.

[1rudeboy]

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.

Yup, it's all a commie plot.

[Austin Willard Wright]

Three cheers for socialism eh? Some of us favor the American system of liberty. Apparently, you "don't care."

[Austin Willard Wright]

Did you read the articles? Under God was added decades after Bellamy's original pledge. If Al Gore adds "Under God" to Earth in the Balance, will you also endorse that?

[anniegetyourgun]

So sue him....and the U.S. government. It might get you on TV too.

[Austin Willard Wright]

So sue him? Very strange comment. When folks point out the horrors of Nazism and Communism in history, do you urge them to "sue" Marx and Hitler?

[1rudeboy]

That's right, I don't care. Our country is doomed. Why? Because the ostensible Defenders of the Republic are spouting that the Pledge of Allegiance was written by a dead socialist.

An amusing historical fact has become an ideological litmus-test of life-or-death proportion. We're finished.

[cake_crumb]

"Any comments?"

I already know the origin of the pledge and how the words "One nation, under God" were added later....

and I don't care who wrote it. It is apropos. The American people like it, and we are sick and tired of having the thigs we like taken away by flag burners and those who continually tell us how 'evil' the 'old, dead guys' who founded this country were. SICK AND TIRED OF IT.

[traditionalist]

That's right, I don't care. Our country is doomed. Why? Because the ostensible Defenders of the Republic are spouting that the Pledge of Allegiance was written by a dead socialist.

The real problem is the "ostensible Defenders of the Republic," as you put it, care less about the Republic and more about their ideology. If the Republic were to adopt a system of government they do not like, they will dump it like yesterdays garbage. Such people are not patriots but opportunistic ideologues. I'd rather a thousand enemies than a single ally like that.

[Austin Willard Wright]

Your right in one sense. Our country, and the original decentralist Republican dream, is largely dead. An especially bad sign is the increasing reliance on indoctrination in our public schools including teacher lead environmental propaganda, sex education proganda, diversity propaganda. Unlike you apparently, I back to beat back this trend toward teacher led indoctrination of which the pledge represented the entering wedge.

[traditionalist]

Read the articles. As the author shows in detail, this was the original goal. I don't think so freepers would be so charitable if Gore or Hillary (who are much less socialist than Bellamy) penned such a document.

Read my argument. Men with bad intentions, or "goals" as you put it, can at times produce something good. Put it another way, just because a pledge is written by a socialist does not mean the pledge is socialist. You are committing a logical fallacy.

The only thing I have seen attackers of the pledge manage to do is impugn the character of the author. Nowhere have I been able to see a single one cite anything in the pledge itself that is objectionable.