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.
The Pledge of Allegiance – USC Title 4 Chapter 1 Paragraph 4
The City Council of one of the suburbs in our metropolitan area recently determined that they would dispense with the recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance before their regular meetings. There is no legal requirement for them to include it. Many public entities do NOT have this as a part of their regular agendas. I might add that this organization is one that I am very familiar with and have admired for a long time. This might not have raised much interest if it wasn’t for the explanations for the action that were given. According to the Mayor who was absent when the vote took place, he was “not a fan of the proposal”. But he goes on to say: “First, I think there are more substantive things we should be working on to make our city more open and welcoming and secondly, I’ve always used the last six words, ‘with liberty and justice for all,’ as a reminder to me that not everyone in our community enjoys the benefits of those words and it’s my job to do everything I can to fix that.” So, it appears that the Council’s reasoning here is that they want to make the City more welcoming to newcomers and they think reciting the Pledge hurts that effort. Perhaps they feel that immigrants may feel intimidated or coerced into saying something that they don’t believe. By the way, as of this writing, the Council is going to reconsider their action.
A part of the red side of me really can get my hackles up about this. I mean if our elected officials aren’t patriots, if THEY don’t affirmatively pledge allegiance to our country, how can we expect the rest of the population to?!?!?! Well, that sentiment makes several “jumps to conclusion”. I don’t believe that this Council is unpatriotic. I think they are genuinely trying to recognize that newcomers to their city, especially new immigrants, struggle to assimilate to our culture and may not FEEL that they have access to liberty and justice.
According to my go-to source for information (Wikipedia), a Pledge of Allegiance was composed by Captain George Thatcher Balch, a Union Army Officer during the Civil War although it didn’t get wide-spread use at that time. The pledge that we are most accustomed to is a variation on Balch’s work written by Francis Bellamy in 1892. Bellamy was a Baptist minister and a Socialist – interesting. It was formally adopted by Congress as the pledge in 1942 as a part of the Flag Code – see above citation. In 1954, the words “under God” were added. This is also interesting; I think a lot of us think that the Pledge is iron-clad law that has been with us since the Founding Fathers. It’s always humorous to me that anything we are in favor of, we automatically assume the “Founding Fathers” were in favor of. But that is another subject.
Balch wrote his version of the pledge as a tool for teaching children, especially those of immigrants, loyalty to the United States. Bellamy’s version was first published in a popular children’s magazine, The Youth’s Companion. James B. Upham, a marketer for the magazine, thought the pledge would instill the idea of American nationalism in students and encourage children to raise flags above their schools. Historian Kevin M. Kruse asserts that this movement was an effort by corporate America to instill in the minds of the people that capitalism and free enterprise were heavenly blessed.
It is more than ironic that one of the writers of the Pledge felt that it was particularly valuable for immigrants. This is like a 180-reverse logic to that of the City Council. And it caused me to try to clarify in my own mind what it is we want for our new immigrants. As I have said before I believe that we absolutely need immigrants and while we can’t accommodate everyone who would like to come to our country, we can assimilate more than we are presently taking in. But when they come, what message do we want them to get from us? I think we should make it clear that it is fine with us that they are here, that we VALUE them and that we want them to become ONE OF US – American citizens who love this country and have staked their futures on the country’s success. We don’t expect them to forget where they come from. My ancestors didn’t, but they were fiercely patriotic. We don’t want to denigrate their country of origin as a “shit-hole” as one of our famous leaders has done. They know how things are in their homelands a lot better than we do. But we DO want them to commit to this country as we all must do. We don’t want them to think that they CAN’T belong here. We want them to totally be a part of the fabric of the country. They should complain about taxes and then PAY THEM like the rest of us. They should work hard every day and try to get ahead like the rest of us. They should want better for their kids like the rest of us. And if their rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness are being threatened, they should raise cane, like the rest of us.
If an immigrant feels that those rights are not being afforded to them, we must get into that and find out what’s up. And if something needs to change to give them the right to the PURSUIT of happiness, we need to do that. In other words, we want them to be part of the deal – just like the rest of us. We pledge allegiance because we want to be part of this country. We want what the country has to offer and we need to be willing to pay the price of being good, patriotic citizens. We don’t want them hanging around the fringes of our society. Get in the game. Now it is true that as already-here-Americans, we greatly underestimate how hard this is for new immigrants. They may need some help. It is in our best interest to give them that help. But they MUST assimilate as thoroughly as possible and as soon as possible. To me, when an immigrant recites the pledge the terms of the bargain are implied. You are entitled to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, BECAUSE you pledge allegiance to this country and all that this entails. THAT’S THE DEAL.
Maybe it’s the nearness of Independence Day. But I think that reciting the pledge of allegiance along with all the newcomers is totally one of the best things that we can do for them.
Craig, thank you. As usual, a thoughtful and useful post. I agree with all of what you write, with the clarification that I don’t believe the feelings about the pledge ought to come from a red or blue side of ourselves or our society. Patriotism is not and should not be the sole property of one end of our political spectrum or the other. It should be a value for all of us. I know you believe that, too.
Like you, I found the SLP Council’s reasoning it its original decision to be confusing, because the values expressed in the pledge should be what we all support and aspire to. And, as we invite immigrants to our country to take up and commit to those same values, it should be something we want them to aspire to as well, just as they were to our ancestors who came here and became a part of our nation.
There is no requirement that those who are not or are not yet US citizens recite the pledge, but as you wrote, elected officials at all levels of government are representatives of and examples for our country’s democratic values. Saying the pledge at the beginning of meetings is a good way for them to do that.
Jon