Hooray for the Red, White, and Blue — Examining Our Pledge of Allegiance
By: Christyl Rivers
Tags: USA, Election 2020, Equality, BlackLivesMatter, Patriotism

Hooray for the Red, White, and Blue — Examining Our Pledge of Allegiance

We pledge allegiance to a flag, but what does that mean?

Photo by Joshua Hoehne on Unsplash

Where did we get the pledge of allegiance?

A lot of people are skipping the whole pledge of allegiance thing during Zoom school. It has some conservatives worried, some parents wishing for some return to normalcy, some liberals indifferent, and some kids not even noticing.

But what, exactly is the pledge of allegiance? How did it originate? At a time where the American flag is being wrung through a lot of stressful ordeals, from being humped by our soon to be former president, pinned on every campaigning politician’s blazer, curled into a “Q” shape to promote a “very patriotic” Q-anon conspiracy theory, waved at every debate and rally, upheld while people sing and kneel, or not, for our national anthem, and prominently enlarged to gigantic proportions to fly off the back of roaring pick-up trucks, our flag has been through a lot.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of…

I ask myself whether any other flag has been so loved, hated, burned, furled, protected, rejected and revered, or made in such massive quantities in China.

Most of us grew up reciting the pledge of allegiance. It is not the same vow taken consistently for the last century. The first pledge of allegiance did not contain the words, “United States of America” or “Under God.” It also did not pledge allegiance to “the flag” but to “my flag.”

Also, I don’t know if you are like me, but it wasn’t until after fifth grade that I recited “One nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty…”

No one ever tells school children that the word is “INDIVISIBLE”, so of course we all said “invisible”, presuming it was alluding to the aforementioned, always lurking and spying, “Under God” that was added to the pledge in 1942 and codified by congress into mandatory use in 1950.

The pledge originated in a youth magazine and is believed to have been penned by a writer names Francis Bellamy and edited by James Upham in 1892. For fifty years, then, young children did not mention either the United States, nor God.

They pledged only “to my flag and to the republic” of a non-specified place.

And, to the republic for which it stands

Also, ironically, the pledge was only created because it was the four-hundredth anniversary of Christopher Columbus “discovering” the new and unconquered continent of North America. Perhaps one reason very few people object to missing the pledge in these days of missing “normal” school, is that we no longer uniformly celebrate the exploits of murderers, enslavers, or colonialists such as Columbus.

As to the republic for which it stands, most people want to aspire to be a democracy, not a representative republic. Debate rages as to whether we should pledge to one or the other, or to the constitution (rule of law) or one person, one vote, for every voice.

It is also curious that the pledge is made to the symbol, and not to the country, constitution, or nation, itself.

Today, Few people can even name which day is Flag day on the national calendar; (it’s June 14). We are more accustomed to displaying and honoring the flag on The Fourth of July, Memorial Day and Veterans day.

As I grew up with a military family near an air force and army base, flags did sprout up upon these days, but unless we were in school, there was no pledge made to the flag.

What children feel when they pledge allegiance varies among individuals and often, their household politics. I always took great pride in the country, thinking very little of the politics. But, like most kids, I never thought much about the words, what promises we were making, or why.

One nation, indivisible

We ask a lot of the flag, which as mentioned before has done a lot of heavy lifting of hearts, minds, and even weaponry. It has been flown at KKK rallies. It has been draped reverently over coffins of our fallen heroes. It has even flown on the moon. As mentioned, Trump is always hugging and kissing it, which makes some of us cringe, and others of us cheer.

It has been used both wisely and inadvisably in many situations.

I prefer to believe that you do not have to be a far-right whacko to honor the flag. When I march in protests, I wave it proudly. It can serve a bit as a tear gas shield, especially in Portland where you can tape it to your umbrella, leaf blower, or wall of moms’ t-shirt.

I often see people drape it upside down to signal a revolution — literally a turn-around — in representative voices, is in order. I remain neutral as to whether this is disrespectful, who are we to say what freedoms that are fought and died for should be judged as negative?

If we are to keep our nation indivisible, we need to keep every voice heard.

With liberty and justice, for all

It is not the turf or private property of those who are bigots, xenophobes, sexists, or even the military.

Our flag belongs, necessarily, to all Americans.

The summer of 2020 was like no other. I stayed in rural Trump country, periodically slipping north to Seattle, and south to Portland, to march for basic human rights.

Where I stayed outside Tacoma, was a working man’s and long- haul driver big truck haven. Huge trucks, more than I even saw growing up in the boonies, were everywhere.

They often flew giant Trump banners waved along with enormous red, white and blue U.S. flags. I did not necessarily see patriots. Some are. Some are not.

It did occur to me that the bigger the flag, and the louder the truck, the more the driver seemed to be compensating for something he lacks which is just too small. There are also an awful lot of “blue lives matter” flags in the northwest, patterned very much like our US. Flag, which makes me wonder what would happen if the Black lives matter flags also used the stars and stripes.

Overall, I seldom have an occasion to recite the pledge of allegiance anymore. Most adults do not outside of serving as school teachers for the very young.

It is curious, though, isn’t it? We indoctrinate only the very youthful, who are too young to know what they are pledging, and ignore the adults who are mature enough to understand, but don’t bother.

I did learn a lot about flags this last summer and election cycle. The biggest take-away I have, came when I realized the size of your flag, however impressive, does not honestly convey the size of love you have in your heart for your nation.

When I see old glory, and a lump forms in my throat, as it did when the flags for Ruth Bader Ginsberg, flew at half mast, I don’t hear: “America, love it or leave it.”

I hear: “America: respect us enough to keep the dream of freedom for all, alive forever.”