Students walk out during Pledge, recite own version

About 100 students at Boulder High School walked out after their first class this morning, to recite an alternative Pledge of Allegiance, in protest.

They object to hearing the phrase "one nation, under God" during the morning Pledge recitation, led over the school's public address system.

The Pledge recited by the student protesters today went as follows:

"I pledge allegiance to the flag and my constitutional rights with which it comes. And to the diversity in which our nation stands. One nation, part of one planet, with liberty, freedom, choice and justice for all."

The newspaper articles:
http://www.denverpost.com/ci_7016257
http://www.denverpost.com/ci_7016263
http://www.denverpost.com/ci_7015611

Hope it catches on and it returns to how the man who wrote it intended and not the nut-jobs during the 50's raped it to be.

The Pledge of Allegiance
A Short History
by Dr. John W. Baer
Copyright 1992 by Dr. John W. Baer


Francis Bellamy (1855 - 1931), a Baptist minister, wrote the original Pledge in August 1892. He was a Christian Socialist. In his Pledge, he is expressing the ideas of his first cousin, Edward Bellamy, author of the American socialist utopian novels, Looking Backward (1888) and Equality (1897).

Francis Bellamy in his sermons and lectures and Edward Bellamy in his novels and articles described in detail how the middle class could create a planned economy with political, social and economic equality for all. The government would run a peace time economy similar to our present military industrial complex.

The Pledge was published in the September 8th issue of The Youth's Companion, the leading family magazine and the Reader's Digest of its day. Its owner and editor, Daniel Ford, had hired Francis in 1891 as his assistant when Francis was pressured into leaving his baptist church in Boston because of his socialist sermons. As a member of his congregation, Ford had enjoyed Francis's sermons. Ford later founded the liberal and often controversial Ford Hall Forum, located in downtown Boston.

In 1892 Francis Bellamy was also a chairman of a committee of state superintendents of education in the National Education Association. As its chairman, he prepared the program for the public schools' quadricentennial celebration for Columbus Day in 1892. He structured this public school program around a flag raising ceremony and a flag salute - his 'Pledge of Allegiance.'

His original Pledge read as follows: 'I pledge allegiance to my Flag and (to*) the Republic for which it stands, one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.' He considered placing the word, 'equality,' in his Pledge, but knew that the state superintendents of education on his committee were against equality for women and African Americans. [ * 'to' added in October, 1892. ]

Dr. Mortimer Adler, American philosopher and last living founder of the Great Books program at Saint John's College, has analyzed these ideas in his book, The Six Great Ideas. He argues that the three great ideas of the American political tradition are 'equality, liberty and justice for all.' 'Justice' mediates between the often conflicting goals of 'liberty' and 'equality.'

In 1923 and 1924 the National Flag Conference, under the 'leadership of the American Legion and the Daughters of the American Revolution, changed the Pledge's words, 'my Flag,' to 'the Flag of the United States of America.' Bellamy disliked this change, but his protest was ignored.

In 1954, Congress after a campaign by the Knights of Columbus, added the words, 'under God,' to the Pledge. The Pledge was now both a patriotic oath and a public prayer.

Bellamy's granddaughter said he also would have resented this second change. He had been pressured into leaving his church in 1891 because of his socialist sermons. In his retirement in Florida, he stopped attending church because he disliked the racial bigotry he found there.

What follows is Bellamy's own account of some of the thoughts that went through his mind in August, 1892, as he picked the words of his Pledge:

It began as an intensive communing with salient points of our national history, from the Declaration of Independence onwards; with the makings of the Constitution...with the meaning of the Civil War; with the aspiration of the people...

The true reason for allegiance to the Flag is the 'republic for which it stands.' ...And what does that vast thing, the Republic mean? It is the concise political word for the Nation - the One Nation which the Civil War was fought to prove. To make that One Nation idea clear, we must specify that it is indivisible, as Webster and Lincoln used to repeat in their great speeches. And its future?

Just here arose the temptation of the historic slogan of the French Revolution which meant so much to Jefferson and his friends, 'Liberty, equality, fraternity.' No, that would be too fanciful, too many thousands of years off in realization. But we as a nation do stand square on the doctrine of liberty and justice for all...

If the Pledge's historical pattern repeats, its words will be modified during this decade. Below are two possible changes.

Some prolife advocates recite the following slightly revised Pledge: 'I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all, born and unborn.'

A few liberals recite a slightly revised version of Bellamy's original Pledge: 'I pledge allegiance to my Flag, and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation, indivisible, with equality, liberty and justice for all.'

[DanaC]

Fascinating. Thanks for that rk. That's one in the eye for the pessimists who think younguns are apathetic.

[xoxoxoBruce]

High school students have never been shy about following causes... or tilting at windmills.

[Pie]

I never recited the pledge while I was in school. I remember wishing someone would call me on it so I could make a stand, but no one seemed to give a rat's ass.

[BigV]

piss off rkzenrage

you don't want to say it? fine. sit down and shut up.

**I** like it.

Are you gonna boycott dollars cause it says Under God on them too?

[Ibby]

I think i only said it once the whole time i was in the states.. the day we caught saddam. I got yelled at to say it a few times, so i mouthed the words a couple times. I was usually forced to stand up, but whenever i could i just stayed seated.

Originally Posted by BigV

piss off rkzenrage

you don't want to say it? fine. sit down and shut up.

**I** like it.

Are you gonna boycott dollars cause it says Under God on them too?

I cross it out.
& I say the pledge, the real one.

[Clodfobble]

Originally Posted by BigV

Are you gonna boycott dollars cause it says Under God on them too?

Originally Posted by rkzenrage

I cross it out.

How about coins? Do you prefer to scratch it off with a nailfile, or daub a little J.B.Weld over it?

[Sundae]

I love the idea of making an amendment to any money that crosses my palms. I wonder what the odds are on getting one of them back? Trouble is, it disappears before I'd even have time to check...

Not being a militant atheist, I wouldn't have a real problem with the pledge - heck it's just words (my brother and I spoke all the responses in Mass the other week, just because we knew it would make our parents happy). But it does seem wrong that the mention of God is a recent insertion - shame YouTube wasn't around then for people to complain about Godly values taking over...

Originally Posted by Clodfobble

How about coins? Do you prefer to scratch it off with a nailfile, or daub a little J.B.Weld over it?

I often mention that little bit of ignorance to my congressmen. Though my Dremel would work just fine on a slow day.

[monster]

I've heard that replacing "under god" with "underdog" satifies a quiet need for rebelliion while not ruffling too many feathers. Of course, as an alien, I'm not allowed to say it, but I don't half get some dirty looks when we're at swim meets in hicksville and they insist on this pageantry.

I think the whole idea's silly, myself. But I agree with Bruce's summary of this situation.

[Beest]

One nation, under Canada

I larfs

[monster]

stalkystalkystalk

[Yznhymr]

Originally Posted by BigV

piss off rkzenrage

you don't want to say it? fine. sit down and shut up.

**I** like it.

Are you gonna boycott dollars cause it says Under God on them too?

For all of those Anti God folks, I'd hate to have you continue to be offended handling money with a reference to God on it...so just withdraw all of your funds, grab your coin jars, piggy banks, etc., and ship them to me. I'll be glad to take them off of your hands. :p