Facts, anyone?

Per today’s Brattleboro Reformer:

The pledge, written in 1892 by socialist writer and Baptist minister Francis Bellamy, partly to help heal sectional hatred still lingering from the Civil War decades earlier, is: “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.”

Except that’s not true.  It’s an accurate rendering of the pledge as it currently exists, but that’s not the pledge that Bellamy wrote.  Bellamy wrote:

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

This is subtle, but that does not make it unimportant.  To imply that the pledge has existed with the phrase “under God” since 1892 frames it in terms of having more than a century’s worth of history as a religious document.  The phrase “under God” was added in 1954 after being actively promoted and lobbied for by religious organizations.  

It’s easy to make this sort of error in fact, which is why it’s so important that our media not make it– it creates a false reality which damages the fabric of our discourse and needs to be challenged when presented.

28 thoughts on “Facts, anyone?

  1. Don’t forget the most important part of saying the pledge, the Bellamy Salute!

    When saying the pledge you must stand, face the flag, hold your right arm up straight with your palm open and facing the flag.

    See here for more: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B

    I think it is fitting and proper after 40 years of far-far-far-right extremist Republicans dragging this once-great nation into totalitarian authoritarianism that we all revive the Bellamy Salute and restore the salute to it’s rightful place at the forefront of patriotism.

  2. it creates a false reality

    unfortunately most folks would rather live in any number of false realities – and the media, the marketers, the politicians, the preachers and many others all are happy to comply.

  3. I am a Selectboard member, and before our public meetings, we are asked to say the Pledge.  I do not and will not use the phrase “… under God …” when saying the Pledge. I do so not because I am irreligious; rather, I refuse to say it because I am religious: an active Roman Catholic and a Benedictine Oblate at the Abbey of Saint Benoit du Lac in Quebec.  I object to the conflation of religious faith and the State.  I also support the ideal of one nation indivisible, with liberty and justice for all, but I lament how much this ideal has eroded under the drip-drip-drip of the corporate State.  

    While I cannot vouch for the accuracy of claims made in the linked article, readers might find this piece published in the Twin Cities Daily Planet interesting in this regard:

    “The Pledge of Allegiance Was Just an Ad to Sell Magazines.”  http://www.tcdailyplanet.net/b

  4. Have you emailed the AP journalist who wrote the story or the Reformer’s editor?  

    Sending feedback directly to the source is important because they will usually print a correction and (much more importantly) it illustrates to the writers&editors that they need to be more careful with their facts.  

    One great thing about living in a rural state is that local journalists & newspaper people often welcome an email dialogue with the readers.

  5. Sigh…it did help jump start my blood pressure when I read the story in the Free Press this morning.  Nothing like a shot of indignation to wake you up in the morning!

    As mentioned, this as an AP wire story.  It probably appeared in countless newspapers across the country.

  6. Would you have the “under God” element removed?  

    I’m personally apathetic to it; not that I don’t like the pledge, but I feel that the school-age population that is most subjected to it doesn’t really digest the words anyway.  That is, when I recited it every day (not THAT long ago) I understood what it meant, but I didn’t really take it to be binding and it was not influential to my development.  

    Now there’s this video of Red Skelton (just a bit before my time) talking about the pledge:

    He talks about his teacher in grade school who inspired him with the pledge, and how since he had moved on from grade school, the words “under God” had been added.

    He remarks that it would be a pity if it were removed from schools because of those words:  I took that as that because of his love for the pledge and his country, he did not mind the added words, meaningless/meaningful to him as they may be.  

    I don’t mind them, as meaningless as they are to me.

  7. I’ve only ever been in two situations in which the pledge was recited.  Once, as a senior in high school, I was at an honor’s ceremony where a group of us were put on stage in front of the whole school and, for whatever reason, the principal decided that that would be a good time to have us recite the pledge, which was a bit of a surprise.  Everyone else on stage placed their hand over their heart and looked up at the flag as they recited it.  I said nothing and stared down the entire time.  

    The 2nd was on September 12, 2001.  I was doing part-time computer training in an elementary school and we all got called into an assembly to talk about what had happened the day before.  The principal thought it would be a good idea for us all to recite the pledge that morning.  I did the same as in high school.

    I have nothing against the pledge for those who wish to recite it.  I have a real problem with it being used as something that people are expected to recite as students or employees, but I’ve never protested it in any vocal sense when this was happening– I’ve just done the silent protest thing, but in retrospect I wish I’d done more after the fact in terms of writing letters and questioning the decision to expect it from people.

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