The irony is that the only thing an "under God" amendment would do is puff up the right wingers, piss off the atheists and the lawyers who make their money off of suing over these issues. The whole thing is absolutely moronic and a waste of time.
You know, nobody seems to mention the fact that the pledge existed for many more years without the phrase "under god" than it has with it. The reason for adding the phrase you ask? It was part of the Red Scare era, when people attributed communism to godlessnes. So if the intent of adding it was more political than religious, doesn't that pervert the whole purpose of of defending the phrase with the theocracy argument like O'Reily does.
Man oh man, am I an ignorant SOB, but I had always believed the pledge was somewhat unaltered for many many years, even though I thought the "under god" was odd for people fleeing religious persecution (in that cozy simplified model of our founding papas). Oski2005 or anyone else have a link or a reference for my pledge curiosity? Thanks.
Compiled from various web sources: At the end of the 19th century millions of immigrants poured into a country beset with social unrest. Many believed we needed some symbol to tie the nation's peoples together. The first widely used pledge of allegiance was written by a Colonel Balch of New York. His was a simple pledge of fealty and devotion. "I give my heart and my hand to my country--one country, one language, one flag". The Pledge was originally written in 1892-AUG by Francis Bellamy (1855 - 1931). He was an American, a Baptist minister, and an active Socialist. He gave a speech on "Jesus the Socialist" and a series of sermons on "The Socialism of the Primitive Church." In 1891, he was forced to resign from his Boston church, the Bethany Baptist church, because of his socialist activities. He included some of the concepts of his first cousin, Edward Bellamy, who wrote a number of socialist utopian novels, such as Looking Backward (1888) and Equality (1897). 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." It was first published in a children's magazine Youth's Companion, in 1892 to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Columbus' arrival in the Americas. The word "to" was added before "the Republic" in 1892-OCT. He considered including the word "equality" in the pledge, but decided against it because he knew that many Americans at the time were opposed to equality for women and Afro-Americans. In 1892 President Benjamin Harrison urged all schools to adopt the Pledge. Many did. In the wake of the Spanish-American War, state-sanctioned rituals of patriotism became more common. In New York, soon after war was declared in April of 1898, the legislature instructed the state superintendent of public instruction to prepare "a program providing for a salute to the flag ... at the opening of each day of school." Daily rituals aimed at reaching children's hearts were backed up with new civics curriculums to secure their minds with heroic images of virile soldiers and the honor of dying for one's country. A typical children's primer published in 1903 taught that "B stood for Battles" and Z for the zeal "that has carried us through/When fighting for justice/With the Red, White and Blue." After World War I, millions of immigrants who had been unable to travel to the U.S. during the conflict again landed on our shores. This sparked a xenophobic reaction which included, for the first time sharp limits on immigration. Organizations like the American Legion and the Daughters of the American Revolution lobbied to change the phrase "my flag" to "the flag of the United States of America". "They were afraid that some of these little kids with anarchist or Communist parents, when they said 'My flag" would be thinking of the black flag of anarchy or the red flag of communism", observed Whitney Smith, director of the Flag Research Center in Winchester Massachusetts. In 1940, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 8-1 that school boards could compel students to recite the pledge. "National unity is the basis of national security. The flag is a symbol of our national unity", wrote Justice Felix Frankfurter. Three years later, the Court reversed itself, 6-3. Why? Perhaps the Court realized that at the height of a war against totalitarian regimes, a central feature of which was a slavish devotion to national symbols, compelling devotion to our flag was inappropriate and a contradiction of the very spirit of the pledge: "with liberty and justice for all". During that war the nation made other changes. The stiff-armed, arms-out flag salute fell out of favor because of its similarity to the Nazi salute. In 1953, the Roman Catholic men's group, the Knights of Columbus mounted a campaign to add the words "under God" to the Pledge. The nation was suffering through the height of the cold war, and the McCarthy communist witch hunt. Partly in reaction to these factors, a reported 15 resolutions were initiated in Congress to change the pledge. They got nowhere until Rev. George Docherty (1911 - ) preached a sermon that was attended by President Eisenhower and the national press corps on 1954-FEB-7. His sermon said in part: "Apart from the mention of the phrase 'the United States of America,' it could be the pledge of any republic. In fact, I could hear little Muscovites repeat a similar pledge to their hammer-and-sickle flag in Moscow." After the service, President Eisenhower said that he agreed with the sermon. In the following weeks, the news spread, and public opinion grew. Three days later, Senator Homer Ferguson, (R-MI), sponsored a bill to add God to the Pledge. It was approved as a joint resolution 1954-JUN-8. It was signed into law on Flag Day, JUN-14. President Eisenhower said at the time: "From this day forward, the millions of our schoolchildren will daily proclaim in every city and town, every village and rural schoolhouse, the dedication of our nation and our people to the Almighty." In the presidential campaign of 1988, George Bush successfully used the Pledge in his campaign against Mike Dukakis. Ironically, Bush did not seem to know the words of the Pledge until his campaign manager told him to memorize it. The teachers and students in the New England private schools he attended, Greenwich Country Day School and Phillips Andover Academy, did not recite the pledge. By contrast, Dukakis and his mother, a public school teacher, recited the Pledge in the public schools. Yet Bush criticized Dukakis for vetoing a bill in Massachusetts requiring public school teachers but not private school teachers to recite the Pledge. Dukakis vetoed the bill on grounds that it violated the constitutional right of free speech. (Actually, the case Dukakis "cited" when vetoing [and was subsequently attacked by Bush for it] was a religious freedom case!) But this is all just ancient history. Among the nations in the world, only the USA and the Philippines, imitating the USA, have a pledge to their flag.
Thanks much, rimrocker! I (at least) have been schooled for the day. I didn't even know we had a stiff-armed type of salute, though I've seen such images on punk rock album jackets, etc. The best fact of all: there's a "Flag Research Center." Where do I send my resume?
