And since politics matters to me, I didn’t have any intention of vacationing in Colorado anyway. But this story at DenverPost.com — LOCAL NEWS shows that some people need a wakeup call.
A town trustee’s refusal to say the Pledge of Allegiance before board meetings has led to Tuesday’s recall election and hard feelings among some of the community’s 7,000 residents. . . .
“People want a vacation, they don’t care about politics,” agreed Judy Speece, owner of Mountain Vista Acre B & B. “They just want to get away from it all.”
Well, count me out!
And just for the record: Christians shouldn’t be pledging allegiance to a flag, either, or to a country. A Christian’s allegiance to a nation shoud always be subservient to an allegiance to God.
So there.
Please correct me if I have my facts wrong: the Pledge of Allegiance was written to drum up nationalistic pride and enthusiasm for the 1893 World’s Fair — Columbian Exposition in Chicago. The organizers in Chicago, the legistators in Congress (who awarded the fair to Chicago over NYC) and the general populace were all eager to one-up Paris which had just hosted the most successful World’s Fair ever (thanks in part to Eiffel and his tower). The original pledge did NOT have the phrase “one nation under God”. That phrase and the motto on our money “In God We Trust” are artifacts of the McCarthy era cold war politics and a direct reaction to the atheism esposed by communism. Why doesn’t historical perspective figure into any of our public debates on these issues?
Follow-up: Kenneth, I find it very interesting that you take issue with the pledge precisely for religious reasons. Intersting point you make.
I know the “under God” phrase wasn’t in the original pledge. I’m not sure about the rest. The religious angle is actually part of the original story, which I see now I didn’t bring into the clip I used. The trustee says it violates his belief (or actually, lack of belief) as an agnostic.
Historical perspectives have been on my mind a lot lately due to my recent reading list.
I am about to finish Alexander Hamilton by Chernow and earlier read Benjamin Franklin by Isaacson and John Adams by McCullough. All three of them bring out the heroic aspects of the people and the times, but they also show how nasty politics could get back then — worse even than today, if you can believe it.
The striking thing for me is to learn about the origins of institutions and traditions that we now think of as being semi-eternal. There was a time before the phrase “In God We Trust” was on our money just as there was a time before the stock market on Wall Street.
Oh, the info that the Pledge of Alligance came from the Columbian Exposition I got from a novel — Devil in the White City by Larson, an excellent but gruesome story with a plethora of well-researched factoids.