Wednesday, July 8, 2015

The Pledge, The Bellamy Salute and A Couple of Moments of Cowardice

 The pledge of allegiance, written in 1892 by a Christian Socialist minister Francis Bellamy originally read;

“I pledge allegiance to my Flag and the Republic for which it stands, one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”

Bellamy's hopes were that this pledge could be used by the people of any and all countries. That It might fit anyone anywhere in vowing the allegiance to their nation. Shortly after, in 1923 there came a revision to the pledge in order to make it more personal to our own country. At this time it now read;

“I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America ant to the Republic for which it stands, one nation, indivisible with liberty and justice for all.”

The year 1954 came along with a fear that communism was about to take over the world. Those godless people from the then USSR would have their evil ways with the US of A if we didn't make damn sure that God was on our side of right and wrong and we added the words “under God” to Bellamy's pledge. That brought the wording of our pledge of allegiance to where it is today.

“I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America ant to the Republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all.”

For so many years, as children we started each school day with our right hand over our hearts, reciting the pledge. Not the original as Francis Bellamy had written it, but the second revision of it. That is not all that was changed though. The right hand over the heart was not the original salute either. Mr. Bellamy had also developed a salute that went with his pledge. It began with the right hand over the heart and then the hand would be extended toward the flag with palm up offering ourselves allied with the nation and then the pledge would be recited. This custom concerning the pledge was changed as well.

During the 1920's and 30's the Italian Fascists and Nazis adopted the Bellamy salute and in 1942 when WWII was declared, out of fear of appearing so similar our nation decided to change the method in how we saluted our flag. We no longer would extend our hand offering up ourselves in allegiance to our national standard, The Stars and Stripes.

Here at home in our own nation there was another group who had adopted the salute. There was a slight difference though, as this group used their left hands and with three fingers of their tight hands formed the letter K over their hearts. It seems that the difference was enough to not, in today's vernacular, make heads explode when the KKK used it. Kind of like terrorism is today, if it comes from outside the country it's terrorism while within our own borders the same evil is viewed in a whole different light. These incidents always seem to be lone wolves committing isolated activities that have been incited by mental illness.

Well, anyway! We have changed the pledge twice. The first time seems to be a good move as it personalized it to the nation but the second time was out of fear. The salute was changed out of fear as well. These were “knee jerk” reactions. Reactions seen in those who will run to the nearest safe haven to avoid confrontation rather than stand up for what they believe in. most look at this as the very picture of cowardice. They may say and you may believe that discretion is the better part of valor, but once you start running away from your beliefs, all that's left is a fall.

I'm not advocating changing anything back. What I do want is for people to realize that things as we know them today were not always as they were. Our pledge was written by someone who believed in the people of the United States of America. Francis Bellamy, a democratic socialist. This word socialist was not and today is not something that the people should fear. Socialism is about and for the people. A system that, like all can be abused but has the first priority of protecting and serving the people of a nation from the greed of the very rich in their need not only for money, but for power. Yes, capitalism can be a system abused as well. It seems as if we have experienced this already.

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