Saluting American Identity

Schoolchildren reciting the pledge while giving the “Bellamy Salute”

Just a reminder of the ridiculous and messy internal contradictions which make-up American identity.

The Pledge of Allegiance was written by a Christian Socialist named Francis Bellamy in 1892.  Yes, you read that right.

A socialist.

“I pledge allegiance to my Flag and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”

Between 1948 and 1951, right wing organisations such as the Sons and Daughters of the American Revolution and the Catholic Knights of Columbus began adding the words “under God” after “one nation” in their own recitations of the original pledge.

Various Christian organisations began agitating hard for the original Bellamy pledge to be amended, mostly as a religious-ideological response to the officially declared atheism of Marxist/Leninist countries during the height of the Cold War.

The phrase “under God” was eventually incorporated into the “official” Pledge of Allegiance on June 14, 1954, by a Joint Resolution of Congress.

So much for the “separation of church and state” espoused by Thomas Jefferson.

Image: Schoolchildren reciting the pledge while giving the “Bellamy Salute“.  The salute was later changed for obvious reasons…

#beforewewerewhite #socialism #patriotism