In my last post I mentioned that whenever I’m at a venue where the Pledge of Allegiance is recited, I stand with my hands at my sides. I only mentioned it because when I wrote that post I was initially jotting down impressions and recollections while they were fresh. I included it as a detail. One of my gentle readers pointed out that without providing an explanation as to why, people would be left to fill in their own conclusions. Well, we mustn’t have that.
Why I Stand
This started in homeroom my Junior year of high school. Every morning before we went to our first class, we said the Pledge. For reasons that I’ll get to, I decided that I wasn’t going to do it anymore. When everyone else stood, I did not. The homeroom teacher was furious with me, and sent me to the office.
Neither the principal nor the vice-principal was in, but I was a regular and received assurances that one or the other would be in touch. I was on my way to get a smoke over at Chez Boys when I felt a hand on my shoulder. It was Ms. Henderson, the vice-principal.
Donna was an older, handsome blonde woman whom I had learned not to piss off. We were at present enjoying a shaky detente. She politely asked me what had occurred, and why I no longer wanted to say the Pledge. I explained it to her (I swear, I’ll get to it). She didn’t say anything for several moments and then – it was probably the first time someone addressed me as if I were an adult – said, “I understand. What I would ask for you to consider is that the Pledge is something that some people believe in very strongly. Out of respect for what they believe, maybe you could just stand?” A light went on as I learned that it was possible to be true to my own beliefs without being unnecessarily confrontational.
Thank you, Donna. You taught me something which still helps me to go my own way.
Why I Don’t Sing Along
It would be disrespectful for me to recite it.
Allegiance – The obligation of a subject or citizen to hus sovereign or government.
None for me, thank you. I consider my contract with the United States adequate in its current form. I pay my taxes fair and square and, in exchange, I enjoy access to infrastructure and public safety – no need to get all gushy with a bunch of talk about allegiance. I want government involved in my life as little as possible. I wouldn’t swear allegiance to my bank, so why on earth would I swear allegiance to my government?
If I were to put my hand over my heart and say the words, believing as I do, I would be showing disrespect to those who genuinely believe. It’s the same reason I don’t take communion on those occasions when I attend Catholic Mass. I do not believe in Transubstantiation, so I have absolutely no business taking communion. It would be rude.
It scares the shit out of me.
If you’re a believer, the next time the Pledge comes up, close your eyes and just mouth the words (it’s okay, the Flag will give you a pass) so you can hear what a room full of people reciting the Pledge sounds like. It sounds like a bunch of zombies saying grace before tucking into the buffet. “With liberty and *braaaiiiinnnnnnss* for all.” I’m not kidding, it freaks me out.
Deeds Not Words
Which is more important: That I recite a Pledge in which I do not believe, or that I engage (without irony) in civic-minded activities like being an election volunteer?
Origins of the Pledge
The Pledge is not the Declaration of Independence, is not the Constitution, is not the Bill of Rights. Our founders never heard of it. Wikipedia has a fascinating article on its origins. My favorite bit of history about the Pledge is the Bellamy Salute (pictured below):
Hooboy.
Reciting the Pledge of Allegiance in a group setting imbues the gathering with a solemnity and sense of occasion that works just fine for some. I cannot engage in this ritual honestly, so I simply pay respect and leave it at that.
You got a problem with that?
Or perhaps you were the inspiration for “The Simpsons” episode, in which Bart’s chalkboard intro was…
“The pledge of allegiance does not end with hail Satan.”
MrPikes reply on November 5th, 2006 4:05 am:
Apparently Mr. Groening has some dogma issues. Who knew?
If passive-aggression gets you through the night, you could always defer to Matt Groening:
“I plead alignment to the flakes of the untitled snakes of a merry cow. And to the Republicans, for which they scam, one nacho, underpants, invisible, with licorice and jugs of wine for owls.”
dang it, first jesus is on my ipod now this. I *needed* tinfoil today and everyone is out.
I kid I kid I love you
Editor’s Note: I don’t know who put a nickel in this guy, but the treasure trove of half-truths, irrelevant facts and outright made up crazy crap contained in the comment below was too good to censor. A simple Google search returned several identical postings from Tinny Ray on various blogs and Usenet groups. I love this style of polemic – spew out a bunch of uncorroborated, unrelated assertions, and rely on their sheer volume to prove the case for you. It’s like saying “where there’s smoke there’s fire,” or throwing enough shit against the wall in the hopes that some of it will stick.
I have taken the liberty of editing the URLs referenced so as not to amp up the target site’s relevance with search engines.
-MrPikes
Thanks for the post. However, the Wikipedia article is poor because it is an anonymous bulletin board where neo-nazis and others deliberately delete truthful information and post lies.
Pledge of Allegiance pictures HTTP COLON SLASH SLASH rexcurry DOT net SLASH pledge-allegiance-pledge-allegiance DOT jpg and Swastikas pictures HTTP COLON SLASH SLASH rexcurry DOT net SLASH swastika3clear DOT jpg expose shocking secrets about American history.
Socialists in the USA originated the Nazi salute, robotic group-chanting to flags, Nazism, flag fetishism, and the modern swastika as “S” symbolism for “Socialism.” HTTP COLON SLASH SLASH rexcurry DOT net SLASH pledge2 DOT html
Much of that history is the history of the Pledge Of Allegiance. HTTP COLON SLASH SLASH rexcurry DOT net SLASH pledge-allegiance-pledge-allegiance DOT jpg Pledge Of Allegiance photographs expose America’s terrifying past.
Those historical facts explain the enormous size and scope of government today, and the USA’s growing police state. They are reasons for massive reductions in government, taxation, spending and socialism.
The “Nazi salute” is more accurately called the “American salute” as it was created and popularized by national socialists in the USA. It was the early salute of the Pledge of Allegiance. The Pledge was written by Francis Bellamy. HTTP COLON SLASH SLASH rexcurry DOT net SLASH pledgetragedy DOT html Francis Bellamy was cousin and cohort of Edward Bellamy. HTTP COLON SLASH SLASH rexcurry DOT net SLASH pledgebackward DOT html Edward Bellamy and Francis Bellamy were self-proclaimed socialists in the Nationalism movement and they promoted military socialism.
They wanted the government to take over education and use it to spread their worship of government. When the government granted their wish, the government’s schools imposed segregation by law and taught racism as official policy. The official racism and segregation was a bad example three decades before the National Socialist German Workers Party, and decades afterward.
The Pledge was mandated by law in government schools for three decades before, and through, the creation of the National Socialist German Workers’ Party. HTTP COLON SLASH SLASH rexcurry DOT net SLASH bellamy-edward-karl-marx DOT html
see photo of Pledge of Allegiance HTTP COLON SLASH SLASH rexcurry DOT net SLASH USA-pledge-of-allegiance-rexcurrydotnet DOT jpg Pledge of Allegiance.
Many people do not know that the term “Nazi” means “National Socialist German Workers’ Party.” Members of the horrid group did not call themselves Nazis. In that sense, there was no Nazi Party. They also did not call themselves Fascists. They called themselves socialists, just as their name indicates.
The historian Dr. Rex Curry showed that the early Pledge Of Allegiance did not use an ancient Roman salute, and that the ‘ancient Roman salute’ myth came from the Pledge Of Allegiance. The discoveries have been reviewed and verified on wikipedia HTTP COLON SLASH SLASH rexcurry DOT net SLASH roman-salute-metropolitan-museum-of-art DOT html
The original pledge was anti libertarian and began with a military salute that then stretched out toward the flag. In actual use, the second part of the gesture was performed with a straight arm and palm down by children casually performing the forced ritual chanting. Due to the way that both gestures were used sequentially in the pledge, the military salute led to the Nazi salute. The Nazi salute is an extended military salute via the USA’s Pledge Of Allegiance.
Media coverage about the discoveries continues to grow HTTP COLON SLASH SLASH rexcurry DOT net SLASH audio-rex-curry-podcast-radio DOT html
Fan mail for work exposing the Pledge’s poisonous pedigree is at HTTP COLON SLASH SLASH rexcurry DOT net SLASH pledge_heart DOT html
And listen at HTTP COLON SLASH SLASH odeo DOT com SLASH audio SLASH 1747108 SLASH view
The Pledge’s early salute caused quite a Fuhrer/furor. The dogma behind the Pledge was the same dogma that led to the socialist Wholecost (of which the Holocaust was a part): 62 million slaughtered under the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics; 49 million under the Peoples’ Republic of China; 21 million under the National Socialist German Workers’ Party. It was the worst slaughter of humanity ever.
People were persecuted (beatings, lynchings, etc) for refusing to perform robotic chanting to the national flag at the same time in government schools in the USA and Germany (to the American flag, and to the German swastika flag).
American socialists (Edward Bellamy teamed with the Theosophical Society) also bear some blame for the modern swastika HTTP COLON SLASH SLASH rexcurry DOT net SLASH swastika3clear DOT jpg Swastikas became overlapping S-letters for “socialism,” all shown in the research of the noted symbologist Dr. Rex Curry. Although the swastika was an ancient symbol, its use was altered to alphabetic symbolism in modern times. HTTP COLON SLASH SLASH rexcurry DOT net SLASH book1a1contents-swastika DOT html As German socialism’s notorious flag symbol, the swastika was deliberately turned 45 degrees to the horizontal and always oriented in the S-direction. Similar alphabetic symbolism is still visible as Volkswagen logos. HTTP COLON SLASH SLASH rexcurry DOT net SLASH swastika-audi-logo DOT JPG
The bizarre acts in the USA began as early as 1875 and continued through the creation of the National Socialist German Workers’ Party (German Nazis or NSGWP). American soldiers used the swastika symbol in WWI (against Germany) and the symbol was used by the American military during WWII. HTTP COLON SLASH SLASH rexcurry DOT net SLASH 45th-infantry-division-swastika-sooner-soldiers DOT html
The NSGWP had clear roots in National Socialism promoted by socialists in the USA. Amazing graphic images that prove the point are at HTTP COLON SLASH SLASH rexcurry DOT net SLASH theosophy-madame-blavatsky-theosophical-society DOT html
The USA is still the worst example in the world of bizarre laws that require robotic chanting to a national flag in government schools (socialist schools) every day for 12 years. It has changed generations of Americans from libertarians to authoritarians. The government bamboozled individuals into believing that collective robotic chanting in government schools daily is a beautiful expression of freedom. HTTP COLON SLASH SLASH rexcurry DOT net SLASH book1a1contents-pledge DOT html