To Pledge or Not To

Is the Pledge of Allegiance a Show of Patriotism, or an endorsement of socialism by an indoctrinated public?
By: Clint E. Lacy

Most of us know the Pledge of Allegiance by heart but few know the true history of the Pledge of Allegiance.

The reason that the public knows the pledge is that most of us learned to recite it in our early childhood during our first years of school, and it is no coincidence that public school is where we first learned The Pledge.

The Pledge of Allegiance was authored by Francis Bellamy. According to best selling author Thomas DiLorenzo, In his article ‘Pledging Allegiance to the Omnipotent Lincolnian State’ found on the following internet address:

http://www.lewrockwell.com/dilorenzo/dilorenzo54.html

Francis Bellamy was a, “a defrocked Baptist minister from Boston who identified himself as a Christian Socialist and who preached in his pulpit that "Jesus was a socialist."

DiLorenzo also states that, “Bellamy was the cousin of Edward Bellamy, author of the extremely popular 1888 socialist fantasy, ‘Looking Backward’. In this novel the main character, Julian West, falls asleep in 1887 and awakens in the year 2000 when the socialist "utopia" has been achieved: All industry is state owned, Soviet style; everyone is an employee of the state who is conscripted at age 21 and retires at age 45; and all workers earn the same income.

Francis Bellamy said that one purpose of the Pledge of Allegiance was to help accomplish his lifelong goal of making his cousin’s socialist fantasy a reality in America. He further stated that the "true reason for allegiance to the Flag" was to indoctrinate American school children in the false history of the American founding that was espoused first by Daniel Webster and, later, by Abraham Lincoln."

DiLorenzo continues by adding, “The truth is that in all of the American founding documents, including the Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation, and the Constitution, the states refer to themselves as "free and independent." The Treaty of Paris that ended the Revolutionary War was a treaty with the individual, free and independent states, not "the whole people" of the United States…The Bellamy cousins decided that American youth needed to be taught "loyalty to the state" because they realized that the individualism and the love of liberty of the American founding fathers would always stand in the way of achieving the socialist utopia that was described in Looking Backward. America supposedly suffered from too much liberty and not enough equality, said the author of the Pledge of Allegiance.

The "one nation, indivisible" wording was especially important to the Bellamy cousins, for if secession were legitimized, their pipe dream of socialism through a consolidated, monopoly government would be destroyed. This was the thinking of all the worst tyrants of the twentieth century, including Hitler and Stalin. (Hitler even quoted approvingly Lincoln’s "union created the states" theory from his first inaugural address in Mein Kampf in order to make his own case for destroying federalism and states’ rights in Germany.) ”

Original Bellamy Salute was disturbingly similar to those of Hitler and Mussolini...

Particularly troubling is that the original salute for the Pledge of Allegiance was a Socialist salute, very much like that of the Nazi salute that honored Hitler and the salute that the Italians used to pay homage to Mussolini and signified an oath of allegiance to these regimes.

A description of the Pledge was also published in the Youth Companion magazine issue 65 pgs 446-447 in 1882 as follows, “At a signal from the Principal the pupils, in ordered ranks, hands to the side, face the Flag. Another signal is given; every pupil gives the flag the military salute -- right hand lifted, palm downward, to a line with the forehead and close to it. Standing thus, all repeat together, slowly, “I pledge allegiance to my Flag and the Republic for which it stands; one Nation indivisible, with Liberty and Justice for all.” At the words, “to my Flag,” the right hand is extended gracefully, palm upward, toward the Flag, and remains in this gesture till the end of the affirmation; whereupon all hands immediately drop to the side.”

Another description of the Bellamy salute can be found on the Wikipedia.Com website at the following address:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bellamy_salute

According to Wikipedia, “The Bellamy salute is the hand gesture described by Francis Bellamy to accompany his Pledge of Allegiance to the flag of the United States. During the period when it was used with the Pledge of Allegiance, it was sometimes known as the "flag salute." It was first demonstrated on October 12, 1892 according to Bellamy's published instructions for the "National School Celebration of Columbus Day"

The initial military salute was soon replaced with a hand-on-heart gesture, followed by the extension of the arm as described by Bellamy. Because of the similarity of this part of the salute to the Hitler salute, the Bellamy salute was widely replaced around 1942 with the modern gesture of placing the hand over the heart without raising the arm. In 1943, the Daughters of the American Revolution, initially resistant to the change, endorsed the hand-on-heart gesture during the Pledge.”

Most recently the Pledge of Allegiance has come under fire , not because of its Socialist origins or the previous style of salute, but because of the reference "One Nation Under God".

This is the one part of the pledge that I have no problem with. On June 14, 1954 President Eisenhower signed into law, the new wording of the pledge, stating that, "These words, {Under God} will remind Americans that despite our great physical strength, we must always remain humble. They will help us to keep constantly in our minds and hearts the spiritual and moral principles which alone give dignity to man and upon which our way of life is founded"

Many see the attacks based on this argument about the Pledge of Allegiance as the greatest threat to America today. I however, disagree. Our greatest problem isn't the few atheist in this country who are making grand legal arguments in a desperate attempt for attention. The greatest threat is that America's leaders have forgotten President Eisenhower's words warning us to "remain humble".

America has become an arrogant nation that is rapidly overextending itself. Not unlike the Roman Empire did. In fact, America is becoming a mirror image of the Roman Empire. Pat Buchanan in a speech given on Tuesday March 20,2007 at the University of N.C. gives proof to my theory that America has become a new Roman Empire stating that, "We attacked a nation that did not attack us, did not threaten us and did not want oil from us to deprive it of weapons we now know it did not have," Buchanan continued, "I don't believe you send your sons and daughters to fight and die unless there is something vital to us,” Buchanan said. “Saddam Hussein wasn't a threat to the U.S. The Jordanians weren't afraid of him, the Kurds weren't afraid of him, neither were the Saudis. So why was the greatest, most powerful nation on Earth afraid of this thug?...Bush went to war for three bad reasons: hubris; ignorance of history; and a sudden conversion to neo-conservatism."-Source The Robesonian, Thursday March 22,2007 issue.

In the Thomas DiLorenzo article cited previously , DiLorenzo wrote that, "The Pledge of Allegiance is an oath of allegiance to the omnipotent, Lincolnian state. Its purpose was never to inculcate in children the ideals of the American founding fathers, but those of two eccentric nineteenth-century socialists. (Not surprisingly, among its staunchest contemporary defenders and promoters are the Straussian neocon Lincoln idolaters at the Claremont Institute.)

If the Supreme Court decides that the "under God" wording in the Pledge is unconstitutional, it will be doing the right thing for the wrong reason (it does not "establish a religion"). The Pledge itself is an oath of allegiance to the central state, and the "under God" language only serves to deify the state. From the perspective of a Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, or James Madison, nothing could be more un-American. After all, they and their contemporaries had fought a long and bloody war of secession to sever their forced allegiance, complete with loyalty oaths, to another overbearing and tyrannical state, namely the British empire"

In a letter written to British Lord Acton on December 15, 1866 Robert E. Lee wrote, "I can only say that while I have considered the preservation of the constitutional power of the General Government to be the foundation of our peace and safety at home and abroad, I yet believe that the maintenance of the rights and authority reserved to the states and to the people, not only essential to the adjustment and balance of the general system, but the safeguard to the continuance of a free government. I consider it as the chief source of stability to our political system, whereas the consolidation of the states into one vast republic, sure to be aggressive abroad and despotic at home, will be the certain precursor of that ruin which has overwhelmed all those that have preceded it. I need not refer one so well acquainted as you are with American history, to the State papers of Washington and Jefferson, the representatives of the federal and democratic parties, denouncing consolidation and centralization of power, as tending to the subversion of State Governments, and to despotism."

If we can agree that it has already been established that Francis Bellamy wrote the Pledge of Allegiance to advance both he and his cousin Edward Bellamy's agenda and that Thomas DiLorenzo has correctly noted that the Pledge of Allegiance, is in fact an oath; then how can we not recognize that it is The Pledge of Allegiance itself that is contributing the America's downfall? It represents everything that has contributed to America's problems since the end of the War for Southern Independence.

I have noticed that if one declines to say the Pledge of Allegiance (even respectively) they are automatically labeled and looked upon as "un-American". Why? If The Pledge was the one deciding factor that decides how "loyal" and "patriotic" an individual is, then why don't public officials "swear in" under The Pledge?

The Oath of Office for the President of the United States, as prescribed by the Constitution of the United States is, "

"I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States."

Here lies the difference. For Francis Bellamy's "Pledge" is a blanket approval of your country, good or bad, right or wrong. It means that you approve of your country's actions, no matter what they may be. The Oath of Office found in the Constitution and written by America's Founding Fathers requires the President to Preserve, Protect and Defend the Constitution of the United States. This means that it requires the President to adhere to the guidelines and limitations as prescribed by the Constitution.

If we are to take an oath to prove patriotism and loyalty, then why doesn't everyone take an oath as prescribed by the Constitution? It in itself is a Christian oath, due to the fact that the Founding Fathers were Christians whose laws were inspired and based upon The Ten Commandments and it is an oath that one could take in good conscience as it requires one to defend the principles and ideals that our country was founded upon, not the twisted ideals of a defrocked socialist minister who believed the best way to destroy the principles of our Founding Fathers was through the indoctrination of school children

On The Web: http://www.geocities.com/clintlacy1/to_pledge_or_not_to_pledge.html