Reader Responses: The Right Wingers' Oath.....

READER RESPONSE…..

—So, do we need to pledge our allegiance to ourselves? As Judge Andrew Napolitano asked on his Freedom Watch show last week, “Does the government work for us or do we work for the government? Are true patriots guided by symbolism such as flag waving and pledges or by their commitment to personal freedoms?”

Perhaps it doesn’t matter. Most folks reciting the Pledge surely don’t view themselves as feudal serfs. But words matter, and actions and rituals matter as well. Tomorrow we celebrate Independence Day not simply as a method to get out of work, but as a way to remind ourselves and our children that this country was conceived in liberty, in the hope we can continue to live in freedom. (That’s why I say “Independence Day” rather than the “Fourth of July,” since what happened is much more important than the date it happened.) The Founders who signed the Declaration of Independence — pledging their lives, fortunes and sacred honor — didn’t see fit to establish a pledge for citizens to recite.

Rather, the Pledge of Allegiance was written by an admitted socialist, Francis Bellamy, in 1892. In addition to the Pledge, Mr. Bellamy also came up with a salute for school children and others to make toward the flag. To prove that truth is stranger than fiction, what came to be known as the Bellamy salute was very similar to the salute adopted by Mussolini and the Italian fascists as well as Hitler and the Nazis.

In 1942, after U.S. entry into World War II, Congress amended the Flag Code to advise folks to place their hand over their heart, instead of giving the Nazi — er, Bellamy salute.–

excerpted from a “Townhall” article of July 3—

via The Right Wingers’ Oath.

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