P: Pledge of Allegiance

P: Pledge of Allegiance

April 19, 2022

Dear Politicians of the United States,

When I was a child going to school and continuing through all my years of teaching, we were required to start every day with the Pledge of Allegiance. Even as an adult on numerous occasions the pledge is recited before meetings.

Have you ever repeated something over and over and over again so that the thing you say becomes rote and the words become meaningless? I feel that is what has become of our Pledge.

Some history for you who fail to heed your own words. The pledge was originally written in 1892 by Francis Bellamy. The words were, “I pledge allegiance to my Flag and the republic for which it stands, one nation, indivisible, with liberty and just for all.”

There have been only two times in our history that changes to the pledge have been made. In 1923,  “my flag” was replaced by “and to the flag of the United States of America”. And in 1954, “under God” was added to it. It hasn’t changed since.

I believe the time for addressing our Pledge is at hand. It needs to be revised. 

Look at the words that are being used and the reality of what we experience. There is a disconnect. 

“I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America. And to the Republic for which it stands”  The definition of “republic” is “A political order in which the supreme power lies in a body of citizens who are entitled to vote for officers and representatives responsible to them.” 

How many elections have the majority of people of the United States voted for someone, only to have their candidate defeated by archaic rules that allow for less than 50% of the people voting to elect that officer or representative. For the president, for example, most states’ rules allow the winners of the popular vote in their state to give all of the delegates for that state in the electoral college to that candidate. That’s not a republic, those that voted for the losing candidate get no voice. Shouldn’t the electors for each state be divided proportionally to the actual votes?  And shouldn’t a person that gets elected have to get more than 50% of the vote to represent the people they represent? If no one gets more than 50%, then there should be a runoff between the top two vote-getters, ensuring that one person will have a majority to represent the people. 

“One nation, under God” 

Whose God would that be? Jewish? Christians’? Muslims’? Agnostics’? I guess Atheists must pledge to something else? I always thought that the constitution or at least some laws of the land require a separation of church and state. That doesn’t seem to be the case in regards to the Pledge.

“Indivisible, with Liberty and Justice for All.”

Have any of you been paying attention to what is going on in this country? We are far from indivisible. Check out the number of bills trying to be passed as bi-partisan. Whether it be a Republican majority in either house or executive branch, or a Democrat majority, there is no listening to each other. They are divided by their political party’s platform, the money they receive from lobbyists, their need for power, and their wanting to be re-elected. And they do everything they can in order to prevent what is best for all the people they are supposed to represent, focussing on the ones that elected them. 

As for” Liberty and Justice for all”. More like Liberty and Justice for some. There are too many violations of this to list. Just read the newspaper on any given day. 

It’s time we add “Equality” to the Pledge. If you want to set an ideal to strive for, our pledge should read, “And Liberty, and Justice, and Equality for all.” 

What is so hard about adding the Equal Rights Amendment to our Constitution? It’s a no-brainer for me. It was introduced in 1972, and the deadline for ratification was extended in 1979 and in 1982.  In March of 2021, the House voted to remove the time limit for ratification so that it could be ratified now, without going through the whole reintroducing and ratification process again. As far as I know, it is still un-acted upon in the Senate.  

Our Constitution’s Preamble starts with, “We the People of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union…” “WE” means EVERYONE regardless of gender, race, religion, or sexual orientation. It’s part of our Constitution and should be part of our pledge. 

Are we that perfect union that our preamble mentions? No, but in order to build a more perfect one, we need to actively change ourselves, our system, and our pledge. 

I’m not going to re-write the pledge for you. That is up to you. You can choose to continue down the path that you are going, slowly breaking up our Union and ignoring the words that you make everyone say, or start listening to the words that you are asking everyone to pledge to and revise them to mean what this country should stand for. Who knows, maybe by re-writing the pledge, it will have to be taught again in schools so that people saying the pledge will actually know what it stands for. 

                            Respectfully submitted,

                                            A very concerned citizen of the United States