NBC is facing an internet firestorm because they deleted "Under God" from a depiction of The Pledge Of Allegiance.
Here's Newsbusters:
NBC on Sunday decided to cut the words "under God" from the reading of the Pledge of Allegiance that accompanied the beginning of its coverage of the U.S. Open Golf Championship.
In fact, this happened twice during the show's introduction (video follows courtesy Mark Finkelstein with partial transcript):
Here's a picture from a 1943 yearbook, depicting the flag and the pledge. Notice anything missing?
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"Under God" wasn't added to the Pledge Of Allegiance until 1954, during the Red Scare era. How the nation survived before then remains a mystery.
We were not founded as a nation "under god".
The British Empire was, or at least thought of itself that way. The king ruled by divine right, and to go against him was to go against god's established order. When Jefferson, Paine, and others started questioning this system, they were reviled as filthy atheists or worse. We forget what a radical departure from the norm it was for Jefferson to declare that "All men are created equal" in the Declaration Of Independence.
One other thing about pledges, vows, loyalty oaths, and promises of eternal servitude.... No American should ever pledge total, unquestioning allegiance to anything political. End of freakin' story.
Our Pledge Of Allegiance was written by a freakin' Socialist.
The motivation behind it was to train kiddies to follow their politicians into whatever battles the politicians chose for them to fight.
Pledging obedience to a piece of cloth, no matter how many people have died for it, is un-American. Dying for a flag, sacrificing your income for a flag, and proclaiming your unquestioning loyalty to a flag is a leftover relic from the Divine Right Of Kings era.
Seriously, would you pledge allegiance to Barack Obama? Mitt Romney? Anthony Weiner? The Department Of Motor Vehicles?
Here's a pic from the 1920's that sums up my argument nicely.
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Pledging allegiance to your government isn't American. It's Fascist.
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Here's Newsbusters:
NBC on Sunday decided to cut the words "under God" from the reading of the Pledge of Allegiance that accompanied the beginning of its coverage of the U.S. Open Golf Championship.
In fact, this happened twice during the show's introduction (video follows courtesy Mark Finkelstein with partial transcript):
Here's a picture from a 1943 yearbook, depicting the flag and the pledge. Notice anything missing?
"Under God" wasn't added to the Pledge Of Allegiance until 1954, during the Red Scare era. How the nation survived before then remains a mystery.
We were not founded as a nation "under god".
The British Empire was, or at least thought of itself that way. The king ruled by divine right, and to go against him was to go against god's established order. When Jefferson, Paine, and others started questioning this system, they were reviled as filthy atheists or worse. We forget what a radical departure from the norm it was for Jefferson to declare that "All men are created equal" in the Declaration Of Independence.
One other thing about pledges, vows, loyalty oaths, and promises of eternal servitude.... No American should ever pledge total, unquestioning allegiance to anything political. End of freakin' story.
Our Pledge Of Allegiance was written by a freakin' Socialist.
The motivation behind it was to train kiddies to follow their politicians into whatever battles the politicians chose for them to fight.
Pledging obedience to a piece of cloth, no matter how many people have died for it, is un-American. Dying for a flag, sacrificing your income for a flag, and proclaiming your unquestioning loyalty to a flag is a leftover relic from the Divine Right Of Kings era.
Seriously, would you pledge allegiance to Barack Obama? Mitt Romney? Anthony Weiner? The Department Of Motor Vehicles?
Here's a pic from the 1920's that sums up my argument nicely.
4 comments:
I understand your position. But personally, I see a difference between pledging allegiance/loyalty to a country (of which the flag is a symbol), and to a particular political party or individual.
The reason politicians and the members of the military swear oaths on the constitution is between that is the document that represents the consent of the people on how they can be governed. It wouldn't make sense for the people to swear loyalty to something they have authority to change, or to the people they have hired.
The reason fascists of all stripes are so enamored of loyalty pledges to individuals and parties is that they see the people as slaves of government instead of it's legitimate masters.
I rewrote the Pledge once. Unfortunately I lost the original.
Basically, I removed allegiance to the flag and replaced it with a pledge to support and defend the Constitution. It was similar to the Oath of Allegiance that new citizens have to take. I see no reason why new citizens must take such an oath but natural-born citizens do not.
Citizens are free, but they also have certain responsibilities as members of society.
Why would anyone swear to support a document that can be altered by a 2/3rds majority vote?
"We are free"? We are "free-er" than some other people but one only need take a minute to contemplate the laundry list of ridiculous laws imposed on us to prove that we are only free to do as our government tells us. Step out of line--just a little bit--and The State will come a knockin'.
"I freed thousands of slaves. I could have freed thousands more, if they had known they were slaves."
-- Harriet Tubman
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