March 8,, 2007
The Power of Thirty-One
Little Words.
Vol. 2 Issue
5
Every morning while I was attending
elementary school, we would stand, face the
front of the room where the American Flag
was displayed and recite the Pledge of
Allegiance. The Principal of PS 108, Mrs.
McDonald, could be heard on the public
address system throughout the school. Her
voice even echoed throughout the halls.
Everyone in the building at the time,
including visitors to the school, parents
with appointments to see a teacher or
administrator would stand and recite the
pledge. Sometimes in the halls a lone member
of the custodial staff could be seen
standing at attention with their right hand
over their heart reciting the pledge.
At the time, it just seemed the natural
thing to do. Today, when I look back at my
youthful days, I now realize that those
thirty-one little words are the most
powerful words in America.
"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."
Have you ever analyzed those word and
their meaning? Let me do it for you as the
late comedian and patriot, Red Skelton did
in 1969.
"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 freedom, wherever she
waves there is respect because your loyalty
has given her dignity that shouts that
freedom is everyone's job.
United, that
means that we have all come together.
States
of America, individual communities that have
united into 50 great states. Fifty
individual states with pride, dignity and
purpose all divided with imaginary
boundaries yet united to a common purpose
and that is love for country.
And to the
republic, a state of which sovereign power
is vested in representatives chosen by the
people to govern and government is the
people and it is from the people to the
leaders not from the leaders to the people.
For which it stands, meaning one nation so
blessed under God.
Indivisible, incapable of
being divided. With liberty, which is
freedom the right of power to live ones own
life without threat, fear or some sort of
retaliation.
And justice, the principle or
quality of dealing fairly with others.
For
all, which means it is as much your country
as it is mine."
The Pledge of Allegiance was written for
the popular children's magazine Youth's
Companion by socialist author and Baptist
minister Francis Bellamy on September 7,
1892. The owners of Youth's Companion were
selling flags to schools, and approached
Bellamy to write the Pledge for their
advertising campaign. It was marketed as a
way to celebrate the 400th anniversary of
Columbus arriving in the Americas and was
first published on the following day.
Bellamy's original Pledge read as
follows: I pledge allegiance to my Flag and
the Republic for which it stands, one nation
indivisible, with liberty and justice for
all, and was seen by some as a call for
national unity and wholeness after the
divisive Civil War.
In 1923 and 1924 the National Flag
Conference called for the words my Flag to
be changed to the Flag of the United States
of America. The reason given was to ensure
that immigrants knew to which flag reference
was being made. The U.S. Congress officially
recognized the Pledge as the official
national pledge on December 28, 1945.
The Pledge of Allegiance is only
thirty-one words, which may be the most
powerful words you can hold in your heart.
In 1969, 38-years-ago, Red Skelton said,
"since he was a little boy two words 'under
God' were added to the Pledge of Allegiance.
Wouldn't it be a shame if someday someone
said that was a prayer and should not be
recited in school." Even then he may have
known.
Those words should never be torn apart by
a judges gavel or attacked by the ACLU as
they were in Elk Grove, California. Dr.
Michael Newdow attacked the words "Under
God" proclaiming that they violate the
first-amendment to the constitution of
separation of church and state. Does he not
realize that both he and the ACLU have it
backwards. Our founding fathers didn't write
it to stop the church or religion from
interfering with the government. It was
written so the government would not
interfere with the church. They did not want
anyone who came to settle in America to
leave because the government was interfering
with their right to religious freedom.
The first amendment clearly states,
"Congress shall make no law respecting and
establishment of religion or prohibiting the
free exercise thereof."
This nation was founded under the belief
that our forefathers and those who came
before them were guided by a divine spirit.
Let us examine the Declaration of
Independence. "When in the course of human
events it becomes necessary for one people
to dissolve the political bands which have
connected them with another and to assume
among the powers of the earth, the separate
and equal station to which the Laws of
Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a
decent respect to the opinions of mankind
requires that they should declare the causes
which impel them to the separation."..."We
hold these truths to be self-evident, that
all men are created equal, that they are
endowed by their creator with certain
unalienable rights that among these are
Life, Liberty and the pursuit of
Happiness..." And for the support of this
Declaration, with a firm reliance on the
protection of Divine Providence, we mutually
pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes
and our sacred Honor."
So it appears that this nation was
founded under God, as the signers of the
Declaration of Independence so stated.
The only thing I would do to change it,
is wherever the words appear; in our court
rooms, on our money, wherever they appear, I
would put them in bold print to remind us
every day who has been watching over this
great democracy called America.
On December 8, 1941 the morning after the
Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, President
Franklin Delano Roosevelt addressed the
nation. The last four words of his address
after he called for a united spirit to
defeat our enemies were, "so help us God."
His entire address was etched in the WW II
memorial in Washington, DC with the
exception of those last four words. What a
disgrace.
Thirty-one of the most powerful words in
America. Why do some like the ACLU want to
destroy them.
Please do not let them go away.
God bless America.
And, that's my opinion.
Michael Solomon
|
