Forced Oaths to Pieces of Cloth
Bill Frantz
frantz at pwpconsult.com
Sun Feb 9 10:57:14 PST 2003
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.
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 pledge allegiance to [the flag of] the United States of America
[and to the republic for which it stands], one nation [under god],
indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
Except for the fact that one should not trust pledges that are made under
coercion, I am reasonably comfortable with this edited version. It
expresses the ideal nation that I wish the United States would become.
Cheers - Bill
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bill Frantz | Due process for all | Periwinkle -- Consulting
(408)356-8506 | used to be the Ameican | 16345 Englewood Ave.
frantz at pwpconsult.com | way. | Los Gatos, CA 95032, USA
More information about the Testlist
mailing list