Thursday, September 15, 2005

Pledge of Allegiance Unconstitutional...Again & The History of the Pledge

First time around Michael Newdow got shot down because he used his daughter to make it happen and guess what? The Supreme Court would not hear it because Newdow was not the legal guardian.

Fortunately Newdow found three parents who choose to remain anonymous to help Newdow with his case to remove the words "under God" from the pledge. This time he might win, should this case go the Supreme Court again, and with two new faces much likely. One new face for sure now that William H. Rehnquist is no longer with us.

Story from AP via Newsmax.com

John Ziegler who is a radio talk show host on KFI-AM in Los Angeles says he is an agnostic and has issues with organized religion, but does not problem with the words 'under God.' In fact he led the Pledge of Allegiance before a live audience during his program last night.

Many people of faith are crying fowl over this issue because the feel that any expression of 'God' is under fire. If the words 'under God' are taken from the pledge, we are just returning to what the Pledge said prior to 1954.

This case does not really bug me at all. In fact I really believe that we really don't need a Pledge of Allegiance at all. It’s an oath that our founders did not envisioned.

The origins of the Pledge go back as far as 1892. The creation of this pledge is credited to a Socialist Baptist minister by the name of Francis Bellamy via a then popular magazine for children and their families called "Youth's Companion." This magazine recently started a campaign to sell American flags to government schools as a premium to solicit subscriptions. This was not just a business move; the publishers wanted the American flag on every schoolhouse in America. In 1892 the publication sold American Flags to 26,000 schools but the business of selling flags was slowing down.

Youth's Companion approached Bellamy, and wanted him to write a pledge to coincide with the World Columbian Exposition and an official program for the celebration of Columbus Day in schools across America. The first incarnation of the pledge was published in the September 8, 1892 issue of Youth's Companion. This is what it originally said:

I pledge allegiance to my Flag and the Republic for which it stands, one nation indivisible, with liberty and justice for all."

One month later it read like this. The new word is in bold.

I pledge allegiance to my Flag and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation indivisible, with liberty and justice for all."

The word "to" was a grammar thing.

The National Flag Conference in 1923 & 1924 called for an addiction of certain words in the pledge. Their concern was that immigrants coming in to our country would not know that the pledge was regarding our American flag. With the new words added to pledge they would know that the flag the immigrants are making a promise to is the American Flag. Here is what the revised pledge said with the new words in bold.

"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."

Flash forward to 1954 when the Knights of Columbus (a Roman Catholic fraternal organization) and Michigan Senator Homer Ferguson wanted a few more words added to the pledge. They wanted this because they wanted to distinguish the U.S. from the Soviet Union and they used Abraham Lincoln's "Gettysburg Address" and the "Declaration of Independence" to accomplish this goal of adding these words the pledge. As of June 8, 1954 the pledge goes like this...Again new words are in bold.

"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."

Should the U.S. Supreme Court agree with Newdow this time around, the pledge will revert to what the National Flag Conference in the early 1920's envisioned.

Many children growing up in post-1892 America have accepted this Pledge of Allegiance, and this pledge is said time and again in the halls of government at all levels and Then Some. The Pledge of Allegiance has become part of the canon of American tradition. No different than Apple Pie and the 4th of July. There is nothing really harmful in having a Pledge of Allegiance to a flag that symbolizes what America stands for, allthough I have some issues with it personally. Just remember that the pledge was originally used by a youth publication many years ago to get American Government Schools to buy American Flags and join in the "Flag Movement."

One more thought; In spite of having our children recite these words over and over and over, they don't really understand the kind of Government our founders envisioned, especially today. They may teach half of the story in our nation's schools but don't see the dangers of what our government is doing now, and believe me Old Europe and its ideals are creeping into our brand of government. The Old Euro ideals bascily encompass the ideal that the Government is this arm of Social Justice, a Superhero/heroine that always fights on the good side. Its a utopia ideal, and not truthful. Its this ideal more/less that drove the men to found this nation in the first place. We don't have Kings and Queens anymore, but we do have dictators and Marxism in this day and age.

History of The Pledge of Allegiance from Wikipedia

Neal Boortz is currently on vacation, but has his two cents regarding this decision

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