Forwarded from Will Miller

[Louis Proyect <lnp3@xxxxxxxxx>]

In light of the current controversy over the pledge, the following except
from Calvin Trillin's Uncivil Liberties column in The Nation (November 21,
1988) provides some useful background.

"In an area in which I tried to be absolutely factual, the origins of the
Pledge of Allegiance, I want to acknowledge that I was incorrect in saying
that the Pledge-which first appeared in 1892, in a magazine called Youth's
Companion - was written for the purposes of circulation promotion.
According to Professor John Baer of Anne Arundel Community College in
Maryland, who was kind enough to send me a summary of a speech he delivered
on this subject, the magazine had a premiums department that sold, among
other items, American flags-then not often seen in American classrooms.
James Upham, the man in charge of the premiums department, realized that if
there was a Pledge of Allegiance to the flag, every classroom would need a
flag to pledge allegiance to. Because it was this stroke of American
enterprise that resulted in our having a Pledge of Allegiance, I should
apologize, as should many of my colleagues, for implying that George Bush's
visit to a flag factory was a piece of smarmy jingoism. Under the
circumstances, it was a historically appropriate piece of smarmy jingoism."

Of course, the offending phrase "under god" didn't get added to the pledge
until 1954 in the orgy of godliness that accompanied the Cold War jihad on
"godless communism" that had peaked with the execution of Julius and Ethel
Rosenberg a year earlier.

Isn't it odd that with all the post-9/11 establishment criticism in the
U.S. of politicized Muslim fundamentalism and how backward it is to defend
a theocratic state (Israel excluded), suddenly in the wake of the court
ruling the Congressional leadership announces bipartisan support for
invoking God in the pledge, on U. S. currency and anywhere else they choose...

The contradictions are intensifying...

Will


Louis Proyect, Marxism mailing list: http://www.marxmail.org


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