THE PLEDGE OF ALLIGIANCE. Who and what are we pledging to and for? Sometimes this process sounds a little Communistic, where we are being forced to show solidarity to the powers in control of our lives and destiny. We believe a little bit of history is in order place THE PLEDGE into its proper context.
“The Pledge of Allegiance was written in August 1892 by the socialist minister Francis Bellamy (1855-1931). It was originally published in The Youth’s Companion on September 8, 1892. Bellamy had hoped that the pledge would be used by citizens in any country. In its original form it read: ‘I pledge allegiance to my Flag and the Republic for which it stands, one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.’ In 1923, the words, ‘the Flag of the United States of America’ were added.” “In 1954, in response to the Communist threat of the times, President Eisenhower encouraged Congress to add the words ‘under God,‘ creating the 31-word pledge we say today.” (ushistory.org.) Going back slightly further, “The first version, with a text different from the one used at present, was written in 1885 by Captain George Thatcher Balch, a Union Army officer in the Civil War who later authored a book on how to teach patriotism to children in public schools.” (wikipedia.org.)
Other things were incorporated into saying the pledge, some gestures still stand, and some do not. Men are still asked to remove non-religious and non-military head ware, and soldiers are asked to offer a hand salute, straight forearm and hand, with the palm down, to the forehead. What is not done any more is to offer a hand extended upwards, with the palm up, toward the flag, but with the rise of the Third Reich and their salute, that similar gesture was dropped by the U.S., asking instead that the right hand be placed over the heart area. THE PLEDGE is still given when opening “. . . legislative sessions of the United States Senate and countless other government, public and private gatherings.” (religionnews.com.) But a review of the history of THE PLEDGE is not the only purpose for this blog.
First, and more simply stated, is that the currently used pledge should be recited slightly differently than how many say it. When saying the phrase, “. . . one nation under God . . . “ There is NO comma after “one nation”! There is NO pause between the words “nation” and “under”! (oklahoman.com; one among many other articles.)
Call it a pet peeve, but we at FREEDOMGOFORTH.COM see an enormous amount of hypocrisy when it comes to those on the left who say our “democracy” is being threatened by the return of the former President of the United States. The left constantly and irreverently claim that our Nation is a “Democracy”, when in fact, it is a Constitutional Republic. Yes, there are democratic principles within our Republic, but our system of government was set up to not simply always favor the majority, but to favor equality for all. A smaller minority could be voted out into extinction if their rights under our Constitution are not protected. Smaller, less populated states, have the same weight when it comes to National issues as do those larger, more populated, states. The Electoral College helps to provide this protection for all states equally. So does the makeup of the Senate, where each state, regardless of size and population, have equal representation, two Senators per state. But this leads us into the major point of our blog today.
The major hypocrisy displayed by those on the political left, who keep claiming they are the saviors of “democracy”, fail themselves to understand that our Nation is NOT a “democracy”. We started our blog today talking about THE PLEDGE. Yes, it was a good history lesson, but the purpose for starting our blog this way was for this last point in our blog today. When those on the left say THE PLEDGE, do they understand that they are pledging their allegiance to “the REPUBLIC “, not to “the democracy”. Those on the left are hypocritical, duplicitous, and to say it in maybe a less threatening way, ill-informed and unknowledgeable. Our FREEDOM and LIBERTY are threatened by those who practice gaslighting and “newspeak” (see our blog on June 16, 2024, titled, “INGSOC”.
“I pledge allegiance to the flag 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.”
