Please Help Me Understand

We know the words and we know the traditions relating to our Pledge of Allegiance.  Over the last few years our nation has been embroiled in a disagreement about the sacredness of the pledge.  Let’s take a look.

We haven’t always had a Pledge of Allegiance.  Most of us probably don’t know the history behind our Pledge of Allegiance so it would be good to pause a moment to get smarter.

The version of our Pledge that we are familiar with is not the earliest version.  Captain George T. Balch wrote the first version in 1887 while he was associated with the New York Board of Education.  Captain Balch believed it was important to teach children, and especially immigrants, about loyalty to the United States of America.  His version reads, “We give our heads and hearts to God and our country; one country, one language, one flag!”  Captain Balch’s pledge was embraced by many schools, the Daughters of the American Revolution, and the Grand Army of the Republic.

Another pledge was written by Francis Bellamy in 1892.  Francis Bellamy was a Baptist minister who was traveling to promote his faith and help people understand his community.  He wrote his Pledge of Allegiance to be published in a patriotic magazine of the time known as the Youth’s Companion.”  Apparently, Mr. Francis Julius Bellamy, who was born in 1855, came to identify himself as a Christian Socialist who believed in the absolute separation of church and state.  The magazine was part of an effort to sell American flags to public schools and solicit subscriptions for the magazine.  The original version of his Pledge of Allegiance reads: “I pledge allegiance to my Flag and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”  The Bellamy version of the pledge involved what became known as the Bellamy Salute.  The salute involved extending the right arm out straight towards the flag while reciting the words “my Flag.”

The two versions of the pledge were both recited, sometimes together and sometimes separately, until just after the turn of the century.  In 1906 the Daughters of the American Revolution turned away from the version written by Captain Balch and embraced their own version which read, “I pledge allegiance to my flag, and the republic for which it stands. I pledge my head and my heart to God and my country.  One country, one language and one flag.”

During World War I fresh interest started for some sort of flag-protection code and, in 1923, the first National Flag Conference was held.  A U.S. Flag Code was written, but it was not formally adopted until 1942.  The code promotes the flag as a “living flag” which represents a “living country” and bans any use of the flag that could be considered disrespectful.  The Bellamy salute fell by the boards during the 1930s because of its similarity to the Nazi salute.  I can’t be sure if this was related to the “disrespectful” protections, or not, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it was.

The 1923 version of the pledge changed the words “my flag” to read, “the Flag of the United States” so as to avoid confusion for immigrants when it came to the object of the pledge.  A year later the words “of America” were added creating the version adopted by Congress on June 22^nd, 1942.  This first official version read,  “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.”  In 1945 the pledge was officially titled “The Pledge of Allegiance” and then in 1954 the words “under God” were added.

Finally, in 1989, the United States Supreme Court struck down the flag-protection laws because they violated our 1^st Amendment protections of free speech.

Who knew the history of our Pledge of Allegiance was so convoluted?

Let me return our conversation to the original source of my misunderstanding.  Specifically, I am confused when I consider the “indivisible” word with the divisiveness we witness every day.  We have citizens everywhere wrapping themselves up in our flag and telling other citizens to get up off their knees of protest and at the same time reciting our Pledge of Allegiance with the pause for emphasis around the word “indivisible.”  It seems hypocritical to me so I must be missing something.

My other source of misunderstanding is the last word of the Pledge of Allegiance – “all.”  The events of our present day lives tell us nothing if they don’t tell us that the privileges and immunities we enjoy and should be enjoying are not enjoyed by “all” of us equally.  More hypocracy?

The Sausage Grinder is Broken, will you help to fix it?  If you haven’t read A Broken Sausage Grinder; Is Our Government Fundamentally Flawed?, you’re not prepared for the job.

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