I have no idea why I woke up this morning thinking about this, but I did. I woke up thinking about it very specifically. I woke up knowing that I could care less whether or not this phrase is ever said in the Pledge of Allegiance ever again or not. Mostly, I woke up thinking about the people who have hit this sentence and already stopped reading because they are so incensed by the previous one.
Too many good people have been spending far too much time worrying about these four words, and yet not giving a fig about any of the rest of them.
If you're still paying attention I invite you to follow along with me.
I pledge allegiance to the flag
of the United States of America,
and to the republic for which it
stands...
You with me so far? Are we OK? Cool.
So, here is where it becomes problematic, and not for the reasons you're thinking. Those next four words have become a mountain that must be claimed. A hill that must be won. A matter of life and death. Without the proper phrasing and number of words we are in mortal peril as a nation, right?!
Wrong!!
Those four words mean nothing - they are utterly devoid of any power or authority. Say them or don't say them, I don't care, because they are pointless.
Why, you ask (assuming you haven't started hunting for your pitchforks and torches)?! Great question!! They are meaningless because every word after them is a lie, and by invoking the name of God, or anyone or anything else, you do nothing to change that.
Let's go back to the beginning and start over...
I pledge allegiance to the flag
of the United States of America,
and to the republic for which it
stands,
(those four words),
indivisible,
with liberty and justice
for all.
Lies!! Damn lies!!
Those words, the ones after those four words, are the words that woke me up this morning. Who cares whether or not we want to keep God in the pledge or take Him out, when every single word after Him is utterly false and without meaning?!
Let's parse it out. “Indivisible” - not divisible, incapable of being divided, not separable into parts. That doesn't sound like any country I live in. We're “Red” or “Blue”, “Republican” or “Democrat”, “Holy Roller” or “Godless Heathen”, “Patriot” or “Terrorist”, “Christian” or “Muslim”, "Animal Killer" or "Vegan", “Fox” or “MSNBC”. We are as divided as we can possibly be. Just look at the photo at the top – One Nation Under God brought to you by the loving, god-fearing people at www.dirtyliberal.com, who seem to be working tirelessly to save those four words while simultaneously utterly destroying the next one. Does that make any sense whatsoever? Not in any way I can fathom. And yet those whose faith rests in a Saviour who said things like, “Blessed are the peacemakers”, who asked us to deeply contemplate “Who is our neighbor?”, and who taught us to pray in a way that would see our trespasses forgiven in the same manner in which we forgive those "who trespass against us", seem to believe that it's their responsibility to bludgeon their neighbor into seeing things precisely their way. I don't get it. And it's not that much easier for me to justify similar actions from Agnostics, Atheists and Intellectuals either, so don't think you're off the hook.
And the horror is “indivisible” isn't the most broken part!! The last 6 words have been long since forgotten and ignored because they were never true in the first place. At best they were a grand hope, but never true – at least since Congress decided they should be back in 1942 when the pledge was adopted.
I'm going to play hopscotch with this line and take just the even numbered words since arguing about “with” and “for” would take me away from my point, and “and” could be replaced by your conjunction of choice and bring you no closer to truth.
“Liberty”. It's what the terrorists hate, right? Our “freedom” to do whatsoever we want. Here's the full-blown Webster's definition:
1 The quality or
state of being free:
a :
the power to do as one pleases
b :
freedom from physical restraint
c :
freedom from arbitrary or despotic control
d :
the positive enjoyment of various social, political, or economic
rights and privileges
e :
the power of choice
Yeah, that's the ticket. USA!! USA!!
Except, have you been to an airport lately? Have you ever had a TSA agent pull you aside for an arbitrary pat down, only to let you know that your refusal to comply would likely involve you, at a minimum, missing your flight while they lock you in a room, go through your things, and ask you questions before giving you a full body inspection? Has the NSA read your email, listened to your phone calls,or started a file with your name on it because you used one of their trigger words like “pork”, “Tucson” or “exercise” in your Facebook post? Have you been told that you can't enter a building with your cell phone or purse because it's federal property and you “pose a threat” with those on your person? Have been turned away from a voting booth because you don't have proper identification, even though your signature shows that you've voted in every election for the last 30 years? Have you been harassed by police because they didn't like the way you were walking, the length of your hair, the color of your skin or the clothes you were wearing? Say “God” all you want, but it don't mean a thing when “liberty” is gone.
And that's still not the worst of the lies! How can you be angry over removing those four words and yet say nothing about the fact that the last 3 have never been true at any point in this nation's history, let alone in the 71 years since the pledge was adopted?! “Justice for all”. Justice for All!! Let's just kill any discussion on the last word up front. I take it to mean “at the exclusion of no one”, but if you want to put a limit on it so that it applies only to those natural born and/or sworn citizens of this nation I'm perfectly OK with that, because no matter how you fence "all" of us in, it's still broken.
Justice. Just what the heck is it, and have we ever really seen it?
I would venture to say that most of you who are still reading this have at some point in time experienced true justice. You've had someone sort out a situation you've been involved in and, after seeking out the truth with due diligence, seen that things were sorted out according to that truth. Whether it was Mommy deciding that your sister did take your toy when it was yours to play with and handed it back to you while meting out some form of punishment (from which you no doubt derived some level of satisfaction), a judge finding in your favor in a lawsuit, or anything in between, we've all experienced it. Just as likely, we've all experienced injustice at some point. From the unfair punishment Dad doled out when your brother broke the window but wouldn't confess so you both got the belt, to not getting the part in the play because the other actor was the teacher's pet, to getting a 2% cost of living adjustment in your yearly review while the guy who sits next to you gets 5% plus a bonus even though he barely worked 20 hours a week. Life's not fair, though it's not always that way.
But that's not what this speaks to. It's speaks of equity of treatment, blindness to race, creed, color, social or financial status, and the expectation that in the eyes of those charges with implementing the laws of this land that no one person is treated differently from any other. This idea has been held in contempt for as long as power has been wielded by people in authority, for if there is one constant it's that there are pockets of our society that are less worthy of justice than others. People are allowed to suffer merely because they could not manipulate a system stacked against them due to their lack of income, biases within the community “their peers”, or as a result of utter fabrications by their accusers from within a system corrupted. While at the same time there are those who are guilty under the law and yet escape justice because of the privileges of wealth, position and societal connection, premitting them to commit lawless acts daily and without concern, for they are immune to prosecution.
Do you really need examples, because I can list them? How about the young black man who was in the right place at the wrong time and stood accused, tried, and was convicted because a witness, bought by law enforcement, pointed a finger in order to avoid similar prosecution – and who later recants, only to watch this young life snuffed out by the death penalty law he was tried under because no one would file or hear his appeal. How about the family that stands in court and watches their daughter's rapist walk away because a prosecutor decided to suggest that, somehow, “she asked for it” by dressing a certain way? Or what about the football player whose multi-million dollar defense team plants a seed of reasonable doubt in a jury awed by his celebrity? Or how about the company that poisons a family's drinking water, driving them from the land they have been on for generations, paying a minor fine as part of a sealed settlement, never actually admitting guilt while reaping profits countless times more than their fines and legal expenses, and being allowed to continue the practice that caused the damage?
You get my point.
So, as far as I'm concerned, do whatever you want to with the pledge, because with or without those four words I, personally, am not about to say it (though I wish to God that I could).
And that's what woke me up this morning. I woke up to the idea that these people I know, whom I call friends, have been pulled into a meaningless debate over four words in a pledge that's already full of lies. Pulled in to an extent that they will spit venom at those who disagree, regardless of side. Who funnel that hatred into actions that run so counter to the faith that they claim as to strip it of any real meaning, while blinding them to the effects on those around them, and to themselves. Who ignore the far more important words that follow as if they somehow matter that much less.
Go ahead, say those four words, or only the two, whatever you want, I no longer care. I still love my country, and I pledge to honor and defend it, with both word and action, and in spite of itself, until it forever turns its back on us - which I pray will never happen - but this pledge I can no longer say. But if you would, please, if you choose to recite it at least be honest with the rest of it, because frankly, when I look at it in the light of day I wonder if it's even worth saying at all?
I
pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America,
and
to the republic for which it stands,
one
nation (under God),
hopelessly
divided into countless unjoinable factions,
with
a few remaining, though constantly monitored, liberties
(including
whether or not to use the words “under God”, even if only for now)
and
justice for those who are privileged enough to afford it
or
are otherwise able to arrange for it.
