Bush Brings Back the Pledge

Frontpage ^ | Chris Weinkopf

[Mr. Mulliner]

Bush Brings Back the Pledge

FrontPageMagazine.com | November 5, 2001

THREE WEEKS AGO, President George W. Bush urged American schools to join in the "Pledge Across America," a nationwide, simultaneous recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance. Since then, the 31-word statement that the left has long considered offensive, antiquated, or contemptible has begun to resurface in classrooms where it once was banished or forgotten. As the country rediscovers its patriotism, the President has led the way in beating back the tired sensitivities of the left — and resurrecting the notion of a professed national fidelity.

Of all places, Madison, Wisconsin — one of the nation’s few remaining bastions of leftism — was recently home to one of America’s most significant culture-war victories in the post-Sept. 11 world: the Madison School Board’s retreat from its ban on the pledge.

The controversy ensued when the Wisconsin state legislature passed a law requiring all schools to lead students in a daily recitation of the pledge or the national anthem. The Madison school board would have no part of it. Officials balked at the "under God" portion of the pledge, and complained that the "Star-Spangled Banner" was too militaristic for a community that hasn’t stopped giving peace a chance. So they passed a resolution banning the pledge and the sung version of the anthem in their schools. Only the wordless, instrumental form of the song would be permitted.

Much to their surprise, they were soon besieged with angry letters, e-mails, and telephone calls, more than 20,000 total. At an eight-hour meeting in an overflowing, 800-seat auditorium, they were berated by angry, flag-waving residents. At meeting’s end, they rescinded their ban on a 6–1 vote.

The pledge is back, and it’s not just in Madison.

Minnesota’s Rosemont-Apple Valley-Eagan School District, just outside of Minneapolis-St. Paul, has extended the daily recitation of the pledge, which had been limited to only elementary schools, to middle and high schools as well. In Pennsylvania, the state legislature has voted 200 to 1 to require that every classroom include a flag, and that students salute it daily with the pledge or the national anthem. In November, Indianapolis Public Schools will vote on a proposal to make the pledge mandatory. A proposal working its way through the Indiana legislature would extend the rule statewide.

And, of course, the pledge is back in New York City, epicenter of the country’s patriotic renewal.

Some two weeks after Bush led Governor George Pataki, Mayor Rudy Giuliani, and a classroom of school kids in the pledge—and one week after "Pledge Across America"—the New York City school board voted unanimously to require all schools to recite it daily. Technically, the board’s decision was redundant, as state law has mandated the pledge for decades. But city schools, like many others throughout the country, had long since ignored the mandate, and the board looked the other way. Many New York City classrooms today don’t even have a flag.

The demise of the pledge and classroom patriotism was no accident. Ever since left-wing America-hating came into vogue during the late 1960s, the left has frowned upon American patriotism as little more than illiterate jingoism. While multiculturalism encouraged the celebration of other cultures and nationalities, political correctness labeled the expression of pro-American sentiments as hurtful or offensive. The left began a systematic effort to disarm the country psychologically by sapping its pride and pushing an image popular with our enemies: America the Great Satan.

The Pledge of Allegiance—which requires those reciting it to say that they are Americans first, that ours is a country under God, and that its principles are sacred—became taboo. For radicals, refusing to stand for the pledge, or cynically mocking its claims to "liberty and justice for all," became an easy way to voice antipathy for the American experiment. While some school districts and many more individual teachers continued leading their classes in the daily patriotic exercise, many others stopped, especially at the high-school and junior-high levels.

The causes are varied. In some cases, schools simply gave up on saying the pledge for fear of attracting lawsuits from the likes of the ACLU. (Although constitutionally, as long as districts allow dissenters not to participate, they are on safe legal ground.) At secondary schools, high numbers of "socially conscious" teens often refused to stand. And many schools and teachers alike internalized the belief—pervasive in the teaching colleges that are largely dominated by the left—that America is a hypocritical hotbed of racism, sexism, and oppression.

It’s a strange irony, given that the pledge’s original author was a socialist. In 1892, Francis Bellamy, a Baptist minister and a proponent of a nationalized, planned economy, crafted the statement for public-school kids to use in celebrating the quadricentennial anniversary of Columbus’ discovery of America. (How times have changed.)

Bellamy was both a patriot and a utopian. He loved America, even though he thought it fell short of his socialist vision as "one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all." The pledge was not necessarily a statement about America’s accomplishments, but his dream of its potential, and the goodness of its founding principles.

Future generations changed Bellamy’s language, but only slightly. In 1924, the American Legion successfully lobbied to replace Bellamy’s "I pledge allegiance to my flag" with "I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America" to make sure that immigrant children knew exactly where their allegiances belonged. Then, in 1954, at the behest of the Knights of Columbus, Congress inserted the words "under God" to draw a distinction between us and godless Soviet Communism.

That a nineteenth-century socialist could craft the words that a twenty-first century leftist would so despise speaks more than anything else to the shift that leftism has made in the last half-century. The country’s early socialists believed, wrongly but sincerely, that their philosophy was the logical extension of American ideals. Their descendants, however, witnessed the horrors of collectivism wherever it was tried, and saw how fundamentally at odds it was with Americanism. Forced to choose one or the other, they chose collectivism, renouncing America, the flag and the republic for which it stands.

Over the course of more than three decades, the pledge had slowly begun to disappear from the national vocabulary. But Bush, building on a resurgence in the country’s patriotism—a resurgence for which he rightfully deserves much credit—has put an end to all of that. He has helped to rescue the pledge from its politically correct exile.

An angry letter from the ACLU, or the complaints of "peace" protesters, once might have been sufficient to stifle the pledge, but not any more. There’s a newfound sense not only in the nation’s goodness, but also in the need to impart the message of its goodness to its children and its newcomers, for which a daily, voluntary recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance is a powerful tool.

In no small part, that shift owes itself to a president who not only recognized an opportunity to reclaim a critical piece of cultural terrain from the left, but who was bold enough to take it.

[toenail]

We need a "Daily FReep," somewhat like the 60-Second Activist. Get a few volunteers together (good mix - different religious outlooks, political parties, etc.,) to take suggestions, decide on a day's items, then let loose the dogs of email, telephone calls, and sundry activism. For instance, I like to print out articles and leave them in the bathroom stalls at work.

The Alliance for the Separation of School and State is an excellent site that every FReeper (and their closest 500 friends and family) should know about and support.

Life Dynamics Inc. (pro-life) is another.

And on days when nothing overwhelming is in the pot, we fall back to emailing Trent Lott to tell him what a pansy he is.

[Hajman]

Interesting idea. Keep me posted on that!

For the moment though, I gotta catch a pillow and some z's. Take care.

-The Hajman-

[Mr. Mulliner]

Thank you!! I've been struggling with this very issue of reconciling patriotism with my loyalties as a Christian. This article definitely helped me sort all of that out.

You're welcome, Penny. You may want to check out other articles at the Chalcedon website. I have recently bookmarked that site and found some excellent articles and resources for the thoughtful Christian.

[Mind-numbed Robot]

Here's your daily dose of cognitive dissonance: Bush is a liberal. Have you not been paying attention?

Oh, just barely, sort of by a fingernail, so to speak, toenail. Suffice it to say that I don't buy what you are selling. I know you can point to isolated situations, usually dictated by political necessity rather than abandonment of conservativism, to support your point of view but I am not buying it. I am not blindly faithful to Bush (I supported and campaigned for Keyes in the primaries) and there are some things he has done that I dislike, but I do believe him to be an honest, decent man and not a liar, which is what he would be if you are right. On top of that, in this time of crisis I am happy we have a man like him and I am not worried that these laws adopted to fight terrorism will be permanent as long as someone like Bush is in office. No if we end up with a Democrat before this battle is over all is lost anyway so the point is moot.

[Mr. Mulliner]

What he said.

[Stand Watch Listen]

Please allow me to present an insightful commentary made years ago by Red Skelton.

Red Skelton's Commentary on 'The Pledge of Allegiance'
From the Red Skelton Hour, January 14, 1969

To listen to this actual recording with 'Real Audio' press here:

"…….Getting back to school, I remember a teacher that I had. Now I only went, I went through the seventh grade. I left home when I was 10 years old because I was hungry."

[laughter]

"And ... this is true. I worked in the summer and went to school in the winter. But, I had this one teacher, he was the principal of the Harrison school, in Vincennes, Indiana. To me, this was the greatest teacher, a real sage of ...of my time, anyhow."

"He had such wisdom. We were all reciting the Pledge of Allegiance one day, and he walked over. This little old teacher ... Mr. Lasswell was his name."

"He said: 'I've been listening to you boys and girls recite the Pledge of Allegiance all semester and it seems as though it is becoming monotonous to you. If I may, may I recite it and try to explain to you the meaning of each word?'"…….

I
- - Me; an individual; a committee of one.

Pledge
- - Dedicate all of my worldly goods to give without self-pity.

Allegiance
- - My love and my devotion.

To the Flag
- - Our standard; Old Glory ; a symbol of courage; and wherever she waves there is respect, because your loyalty has given her a dignity that shouts, Freedom is everybody's job.

Of The United
- - That means that we have all come together.

States
- - Individual communities that have united into forty-eight great states. Forty-eight individual communities with pride and dignity and purpose. All divided by imaginary boundaries, yet united to a common cause, and that is love of country, of America

. And to the Republic
- - Republic--a sovereign state in which power is invested in representatives chosen by the people to govern. And government is the people; and it's from the people to the leaders, not from the leaders to the people.

For which it stands

One Nation
- - One Nation--meaning, so blessed by God.

Indivisible
- - Incapable of being divided.

With Liberty
- - Which is Freedom; the right of power for one to live his own life, without fears, threats, or any sort of retaliation.

And Justice
- - The principle, or qualities, of dealing fairly with others.

For All
- - For All--that means, boys and girls, it's as much your country as it is mine.

And now, boys and girls, let me hear you recite the Pledge of Allegiance:

I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic, for which it stands; one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Since I was a small boy, two states have been added to our country, and two words have been added to the Pledge of Allegiance: Under God. Wouldn't it be a pity if someone said that is a prayer, and that be eliminated from schools, too?

Red Skelton ( July 18, 1913 - Sept 17, 1997)
Thanks Red, … "Good Night ... and ... God Bless"

The Pledge of Allegiance
A Short History

by Dr. John W. Baer

Copyright 1992 by Dr. John W. Baer

Francis Bellamy (1855 - 1931), a Baptist minister, wrote the original Pledge in August 1892. He was a Christian Socialist. In his Pledge, he is expressing the ideas of his first cousin, Edward Bellamy, author of the American socialist utopian novels, Looking Backward (1888) and Equality (1897).

Francis Bellamy in his sermons and lectures and Edward Bellamy in his novels and articles described in detail how the middle class could create a planned economy with political, social and economic equality for all. The government would run a peace time economy similar to our present military industrial complex.

The Pledge was published in the September 8th issue of The Youth's Companion, the leading family magazine and the Reader's Digest of its day. Its owner and editor, Daniel Ford, had hired Francis in 1891 as his assistant when Francis was pressured into leaving his Baptist church in Boston because of his socialist sermons. As a member of his congregation, Ford had enjoyed Francis's sermons. Ford later founded the liberal and often controversial Ford Hall Forum, located in downtown Boston.

In 1892 Francis Bellamy was also a chairman of a committee of state superintendents of education in the National Education Association. As its chairman, he prepared the program for the public schools' quadricentennial celebration for Columbus Day in 1892. He structured this public school program around a flag raising ceremony and a flag salute - his 'Pledge of Allegiance.'

His original Pledge read as follows: 'I pledge allegiance to my Flag and (to*) the Republic for which it stands, one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.' He considered placing the word, 'equality,' in his Pledge, but knew that the state superintendents of education on his committee were against equality for women and African Americans. [ * 'to' added in October, 1892. ]

Dr. Mortimer Adler, American philosopher and last living founder of the Great Books program at Saint John's College, has analyzed these ideas in his book, The Six Great Ideas. He argues that the three great ideas of the American political tradition are 'equality, liberty and justice for all.' 'Justice' mediates between the often conflicting goals of 'liberty' and 'equality.'

In 1923 and 1924 the National Flag Conference, under the 'leadership of the American Legion and the Daughters of the American Revolution, changed the Pledge's words, 'my Flag,' to 'the Flag of the United States of America.' Bellamy disliked this change, but his protest was ignored.

In 1954, Congress after a campaign by the Knights of Columbus, added the words, 'under God,' to the Pledge. The Pledge was now both a patriotic oath and a public prayer.

Bellamy's granddaughter said he also would have resented this second change. He had been pressured into leaving his church in 1891 because of his socialist sermons. In his retirement in Florida, he stopped attending church because he disliked the racial bigotry he found there.

What follows is Bellamy's own account of some of the thoughts that went through his mind in August, 1892, as he picked the words of his Pledge:

It began as an intensive communing with salient points of our national history, from the Declaration of Independence onwards; with the makings of the Constitution...with the meaning of the Civil War; with the aspiration of the people...

The true reason for allegiance to the Flag is the 'republic for which it stands.' ...And what does that vast thing, the Republic mean? It is the concise political word for the Nation - the One Nation which the Civil War was fought to prove. To make that Oe Nation idea clear, we must specify that it is indivisible, as Webster and Lincoln used to repeat in their great speeches. And its future?

Just here arose the temptation of the historic slogan of the French Revolution which meant so much to Jefferson and his friends, 'Liberty, equality, fraternity.' No, that would be too fanciful, too many thousands of years off in realization. But we as a nation do stand square on the doctrine of liberty and justice for all...

If the Pledge's historical pattern repeats, its words will be modified during this decade. Below are two possible changes.

Some prolife advocates recite the following slightly revised Pledge: '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, born and unborn.' >A few liberals recite a slightly revised version of Bellamy's original Pledge: 'I pledge allegiance to my Flag, and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation, indivisible, with equality, liberty and justice for all.'

The History Of Flag Day

********************************************

The Fourth of July was traditionally celebrated as America's birthday, but the idea of an annual day specifically celebrating the Flag is believed to have first originated in 1885. BJ Cigrand, a schoolteacher, arranged for the pupils in the Fredonia, Wisconsin Public School, District 6, to observe June 14 (the 108th anniversary of the official adoption of The Stars and Stripes) as 'Flag Birthday'. In numerous magazines and newspaper articles and public addresses over the following years, Cigrand continued to enthusiastically advocate the observance of June 14 as 'Flag Birthday', or 'Flag Day'.

On June 14, 1889, George Balch, a kindergarten teacher in New York City, planned appropriate ceremonies for the children of his school, and his idea of observing Flag Day was later adopted by the State Board of Education of New York. On June 14, 1891, the Betsy Ross House in Philadelphia held a Flag Day celebration, and on June 14 of the following year, the New York Society of the Sons of the Revolution, celebrated Flag Day.

Following the suggestion of Colonel J Granville Leach (at the time historian of the Pennsylvania Society of the Sons of the Revolution), the Pennsylvania Society of Colonial Dames of America on April 25, 1893 adopted a resolution requesting the mayor of Philadelphia and all others in authority and all private citizens to display the Flag on June 14th. Leach went on to recommend that thereafter the day be known as 'Flag Day', and on that day, school children be assembled for appropriate exercises, with each child being given a small Flag.

Two weeks later on May 8th, the Board of Managers of the Pennsylvania Society of Sons of the Revolution unanimously endorsed the action of the Pennsylvania Society of Colonial Dames. As a result of the resolution, Dr. Edward Brooks, then Superintendent of Public Schools of Philadelphia, directed that Flag Day exercises be held on June 14, 1893 in Independence Square. School children were assembled, each carrying a small Flag, and patriotic songs were sung and addresses delivered.

In 1894, the governor of New York directed that on June 14 the Flag be displayed on all public buildings. With BJ Cigrand and Leroy Van Horn as the moving spirits, the Illinois organization, known as the American Flag Day Association, was organized for the purpose of promoting the holding of Flag Day exercises. On June 14th, 1894, under the auspices of this association, the first general public school children's celebration of Flag Day in Chicago was held in Douglas, Garfield, Humboldt, Lincoln, and Washington Parks, with more than 300,000 children participating.

Adults, too, participated in patriotic programs. Franklin K. Lane, Secretary if the Interior, delivered a 1914 Flag Day address in which he repeated words he said the flag had spoken to him that morning: "I am what you make me; nothing more. I swing before your eyes as a bright gleam of color, a symbol of yourself."

Inspired by these three decades of state and local celebrations, Flag Day - the anniversary of the Flag Resolution of 1777 - was officially established by the Proclamation of President Woodrow Wilson on May 30th, 1916. While Flag Day was celebrated in various communities for years after Wilson's proclamation, it was not until August 3rd, 1949, that President Truman signed an Act of Congress d

[toenail]

Isolated incidents? He just said that the federal government is going to mandate local water quality levels. I don't care much for political expediency or poll numbers; his job description is the Constitution. Does the Constitution give the federal government authority over local water standards?

Is he still witholding water from the farmers in the Klamath Basin?

Where exactly in his job description does it say that he can take our money and give it to biotech companies to do experiments many of us find morally abhorrent?

Where in the Constitution is the federal government given any authority to do anything at all about education? Yet Bush signed in a huge increase in authority and cash for government education. I suppose he and Colin can build a coalition of Arab countries to oppose Afghanistan, but he can't build a coalition of U.S. governors to support the abolition of fedgov involvement in education....

It's not an isolated incident or two. Everything Bush has done has only been to increase the power of the federal government.

[Josephine]

BTTT. Great article.

[lysie]

Thanks for the ping....SY...great article.

[kassie]

Thanks for the ping. Each day of school was started with a Pledge of Allegiance when I was growing up. We home school our son.He starts his day out with a Pledge also. We put our flag out on nice days, however we do not have a ceremony.

[Happygal]

~phew~
I looked at the title of this article and thought that Prohibition is back. Over here in Ireland where I live the 'pledge' is taken by people who abstain from alcohol!!!! *L* I thought for a minute there I'd have to cancel me next trip to the US!
~phew~

[M Kehoe]

You are probably asleep, but thanks for the flag. Good article.

5.56mm

[Marysecretary]

Wonderful article. I agree wholeheartedly and am proud to be an American Christian patriot. God bless America!

[marylina]

You'll love this one!

You knew I would! Madison School Board forced to stand at attention! LOL!!!