Forced Oaths to Pieces of Cloth

[Tim May]

On Sunday, February 9, 2003, at 10:57  AM, Bill Frantz wrote:

> At 6:55 AM -0800 2/9/03, Sunder wrote:
>> And also freedom of religion.  Forcing someone to say "Under God" for
>> example.
>
> Back in the dark ages (the 1950s, and don't anyone get nostalgic for 
> them),
> when the phrase "under god" was added to the pledge, I was a student in
> school.  From what they had taught me, I knew then that this addition
> violated the establishment of religion clause.  The solution I devised 
> was
> to simply remain silent when this phrase was said.

During the possibly more radical 60s, some of us uttered "under Satan" 
during this sequence. One of my friends got a trip to the Principal's 
office for this, where he explained that he believed in Satan and that 
God was just a pretender, and if the Principal could demonstrate that 
the U.S. officially recognizes one deity over another he would 
reconsider.

>
> Unfortunately having started to question the relation between the 
> pledge
> and the ideals of the country, I started to wonder why I was pledging 
> to
> the flag, instead of the country.  So over the years, I have a somewhat
> edited version (removed parts in brackets):

I don't "pledge" to either a flag or a country. I just live here. And 
this is where the stuff I own is located. All I ask of government is 
that they stay out of my way.


--Tim May