THE PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE AND THE FORGOTTEN WORD

THE PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE AND THE FORGOTTEN WORD

When I was young we said the Pledge of Allegiance like this:

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.

Much later the phrase, under God, was inserted. It was awkward for us, brought up on the old rhythm, and somehow, I think the word indivisible lost its emphasis. I don’t want to quibble about the rightness or wrongness of inserting “under God”, I’ve grown used to saying it, and my tongue stopped tripping over it years ago, but now it is time for people, who put so much emphasis on stressing “under God”, start raising their voices to get emphatic about “indivisible.” We fought the bloodiest war in our history to prevent the division of our country. We seem to have totally forgotten that a good democracy, has room for many opinions, that in fact good planning requires investigating many solutions to a problem, that good governance is the freedom to discuss all the ideas, and listen to everyone’s thoughts, but at the end of the day, we are still INDIVISIBLE, we are still working for the best ideas for all the country, WE ARE STILL ONE NATION.

What is happening to our country today makes me shudder. Can you believe that schools have been told not to let their children listen to their President speak? To have this happen any time in the past would be unthinkable. He is the President of us all, of the UNITED States of America. But with actions like this, soon, we will not be a United States of America

I have lived through many presidents, some I liked, some I wasn’t too proud about, but they were still my President, and I would still give them the honor of addressing them with that title today. I happen to believe that no matter how wrong I think some of our political leaders might be, no matter how much I disagree with some of their policies, that they are doing their best to lead us in what they see as the right direction. Unfortunately the notion of, “If you aren’t one of us, if you aren’t one of my party, if you aren’t one of my persuasion, you are evil,” seems to be rising among us. The seeds of division are being sown every day. Can you believe a governor has actually talked about his state seceding?

Isn’t this beyond belief, isn’t this ludicrous to the extreme? But I am not laughing at the humor of it all, I am only afraid that my great INDIVISIBLE country is being torn to shreds. Lets go back to saying our Pledge of Allegiance, and lets give meaning to all the words. Lets go back to being a democracy with different parties, expressing different opinions, but working together as ONE NATION.