A California teen, Derek Giardina, was punished for omitting the two words ?under God? while leading the student body in the daily Pledge of Allegiance at West High School. As part of the speech class curriculum, reading the announcements, including leading the pledge, is an assignment for which students are graded.
I’ll be honest; I had mixed feelings when I first read the story. The?current version of our pledge has the words ?under God? within it and he was leading the entire school in the recitation. One could easily jump to the conclusion that omitting those words while leading others is not performing the task as assigned and is deserving of a lower grade. One could draw the conclusion that the willful omission deserves the detention as penalty, as he was entrusted with the responsibility of addressing fellow students as a representative of the school.
One could easily draw those conclusions and be done with it. No debate. Moving on. Forget it.
But, isn’t there more to it than that? Doesn?t it deserve our sincere thought? I think so and consequently it’s taken me a couple days to fully develop my own.
So what is the scoop surrounding the words ?under God? in our nation’s pledge? What was the author’s intent in placing them there?
![By Fenno Jacobs, Photographer. United States Office of War Information [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons](https://liberalamerica.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/Bellamy_salute_1.jpg)
?I pledge allegiance to my Flag and the Republic for which it stands, one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.?
It was amended in 1923 to include the name of our country, just to clarify to any immigrant children which flag they were hailing (true story), but still no mention of a deity.
?I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.?
It wasn’t until President Eisenhower signed a bill on Flag Day in 1954, to show true superiority over godless communism, that it was amended to include ?under God.? He made the following remarks during the bill-signing ceremony:
?From this day forward, the millions of our school children will daily proclaim in every city and town, every village and rural school house, the dedication of our nation and our people to the Almighty. To anyone who truly loves America, nothing could be more inspiring than to contemplate this rededication of our youth, on each school morning, to our country’s true meaning.”
The intent of having these two words within the pledge is fairly clear. There is something fundamentally wrong within our nation, founded upon religious freedom, when we force our children to acknowledge a God through an act disguised as patriotism. Much to conservative America’s chagrin, patriotism and religion are not codependent. I am not religious. But, I do love my country, hence why I spend time talking about how to make it better.
I’m glad Derek was punished. Not because he was deserving of any punishment at all, but because it calls attention to something we need to address.
When you rock the boat, you’re likely to get a little wet.?But, if you rock it hard enough ? you’re likely to change the direction of the voyage.
Good job, Derek. Keep on rocking.
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Elizabeth Preston is a thirty-something wife and mother of three living in Florida. She is a fierce liberal with a passion?for equality and justice. She is a skeptic by nature and often the Facebook friend that rains on the urban legend parade with fact checking. Give her?Facebook page?a?like, follow her on?Twitter?and check out her personal blog?My Four Ha? Pennies.
