S3 E46 | Pledge of Allegiance

S3 E46 Pledge of Allegiance

Discussion topics in this episode:

  • Why do we have it?

    • Flags became all the rage in the 1880s. They embodied a symbolism that was cemented during the civil war around flags and loyalty oaths to a new, slavery-free nation. 
    • Through to today, it still serves its original purpose of indoctrinating young citizens and immigrants to honor the republic.
    • According to this Boston Review article: “George T. Balch, a West Point graduate and veteran of the Civil War, organized a number of flag-related patriotic ceremonies for schoolchildren, and published the first pledge in his 1890 paper titled, ‘Methods of Teaching Patriotism in the Public Schools’.”
    • It is now also used by some to honor all those who have fallen in defense of our republic.
  • The history (Wikipedia) shows few changes, but momentous they are nonetheless. Besides the original, plus a minor grammatical change (it was being used in schools after all), there were only two other major iterations:

    • 1923/1924 A reference to the “United States of America” was added as context for what flag, inspired by nationalistic tendencies in response to immigration and other domestic tranquility issues.
    • 1954 It was adopted into the U.S. code, laws, by congress and had the language “under God” added  to, “fight against the evil of communism and, by extension, atheism.” This is according to the Boston Review article previously mentioned and it is backed up by our other research. The implementation of “under God” and ” in God we trust” was all conducted during the anti-communism fever of the 1950-60s.
  • All the controversies that need not be so.

    • Not for any good reason, other than maintaining the status quo, the courts have not deemed the pledge or its expressed deference to a god as unconstitutional because as a practical matter, it is just too ingrained.  Congressional legislative sessions have been making reference to a god since 1787. Of course, none of the arguments make sense, they are just lazy. What is right is usually the hard thing to do. Look at how much effort it took to remove the worse parts of slavery.
    • People have all the rights to refrain from participating in the pledge. Children in school do too, but they have to overcome a higher bar than adults. In some schools, kids face harassment by teachers and administrators for refusing to recite the pledge.
    • The U.S. legal code articulating the pledge and the proper salute to the flag, is prefaced with “should” and not “shall, will, or must.”
  • Calls to Action:
    • Whether hand to heart or taking a knee, either peacefully supporting or peacefully protesting the pledge is the right thing to do. Express it any way you want within your first amendment rights. That is the American way. 
    • Shall we honor RWJ and restore the original pledge of allegiance from 1892?
      • “I pledge allegiance to my Flag and the Republic for which it stands, one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”
    • Or is it high time to adopt something like MVP’s recommendation on a revised pledge to amend and extend the history books?

      • “I pledge allegiance to the Constitution of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one Nation among the stars, indivisible, with liberty, and justice, for all.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

“On Ones Mind” image by Serge Shop.

Voices

  • Michael V. Piscitelli
  • Raymond Wong Jr.

More info

  • We have transcripts located at the end of each podcast episode’s page on our site. Check it out, but know this: It’s all AI and not us. So thank you in advance for forgiving any and all errors.

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed on this podcast are for listener consideration and are not necessarily those of the show or its sponsors.

Special thanks to

  • Our ongoing supporters, thank you!
  • Our sponsor CitizenDoGood.com .
  • Intro music sampled from “Okay Class” by Ozzy Jock under creative commons license through freemusicarchive.org.
  • Other music provided royalty-free through Fesliyan Studios Inc.

Transcript

The following transcript was taken using AI technology. We cannot vouch for its accuracy. Read at your own risk. These are time-stamped from the day we recorded and unfortunately not name stamped.

Citizens Prerogative Podcast Closed Caption Transcript
S3 E46 Pledge of Allegiance

10:51:59 In times like these, being a citizen is a big job. Thank you for joining us to celebrate the virtues of self rule, and debate, the state of our republic.
10:52:09 Welcome to the citizens prerogative podcast. This is the voice of your nerdy host Michael biscuit Telly and we are blessed with a co host whose passion for our republic precedes him everywhere he goes Ramin one Jr.
10:52:24 Thank you. Thank you. I just want to be in full disclosure that I will be kneeling throughout this entire episode.
10:52:34 Way to protest.
10:52:36 This is episode number 46, we’re in season three. And the title of this episode, maybe Pledge of Allegiance.
10:52:47 And in true fashion or fit to form, we’re actually going to spend the next few minutes 30 minutes or so with you talking about the Pledge of Allegiance just that there’s nothing, nothing hidden here, but it’s still going to be fun and interesting.
10:53:01 and we’re still going to have some call to actions.
10:53:04 I was excited about this one Mike as soon as I saw it I saw in my eyes. I just thought, oh good because we both have that common thread we both were anti allegiance I think we spoke about it when we were teenagers early on, you and I, clarified a couple
10:53:19 of things right up front Star Trek Yes, and Pledge of Allegiance No, I just know that about us early on, it must have been like something we said to everyone we met.
10:53:30 Probably, Yeah at a young age we are very free speech oriented to a fault I know that you’ve been kicked out of your you’re kicked out of certain religious institutions, because of your free speech ways I’ve been in plenty of detentions I know in my life.
10:53:47 Just for saying the wrong thing calling it out. So, this is the Pledge of Allegiance Oh my, if there’s nothing more communists in our system with all the communists being thrown around the Pledge of Allegiance.
10:53:59 I can’t think of a more idealistic or communist value that’s in our system today. And we’ve really learned a lot about it so I’m excited to share.
10:54:10 Yeah, I’m gonna pile on a little layer of precision from my perspective on that. It’s, I would say it’s nationalistic.
10:54:19 Right. Doesn’t matter what form of governance, your government chooses you know something, a pledge of allegiance, literally, I mean you’re pledging your allegiance, and this is outside of the framework of Immigration and Naturalization or anything like
10:54:37 that.
10:54:39 So, with it, why don’t we dive into the history, I mean it’s kind of fun so we’re going to go, we’re going to talk a little bit about what, why do we have this thing What is it, I think most people know but most people don’t think about it either so it’s
10:54:49 fun just to kind of pull it up and, you know, see if we’re on the same page with our assumptions and understandings.
10:55:04 Talk a little bit about the history because I knew it had a history, but just like many of the things that we talked about I don’t necessarily know where all the history was until I started looking into it, it’s always fascinating.
10:55:09 And then we’ll cover a little bit over the controversies before we get into call to action so just to wrap it up.
10:55:17 So way.
10:55:22 Sorry.
10:55:25 What’s the deal with the Pledge of Allegiance Why am I, why am I pledging energy any allegiance and what am i pledging it to the Pledge of Allegiance.
10:55:39 Seems like it’s mostly military focused, it seems like its origins, come from a sort of allegiance to the flag is the original origin. So what we found so far.
10:55:54 First virgin, and again history is told by the winners of war so we don’t know exactly if everything’s true here but in 1892, apparently was the first version.
10:56:00 And just to keep the language quite plain. I pledge allegiance to my flag and the Republic for which it stands, one nation, indivisible, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
10:56:13 And the language is quite playing there I think I don’t know about you.
10:56:18 Yeah, and, and I was surprised it’s, it’s relatively old, I mean, relatively speaking, in terms of how old the United States is.
10:56:28 In any case, and it’s remarkably intact I mean it’s very similar to the one I think you and I learned growing up.
10:56:37 And just as it is in the name of the Pledge of Allegiance. I think it was, it was created to instill in people a sense of loyalty, loyalty to the Republic.
10:56:48 I mean, but not even generally everyone because what I’m seeing is that it was, it was kind of a naturalization thing as well so it was more of a policy heavily in naturalization in fact it’s just the states and school systems adopted it and made it more
10:57:04 of this, what I would have called maybe communist ideals, but I like the way you’re saying at these national I nationalist ideals.
10:57:22 And instead, Institute them in the education system, but it appears, it was really focused around some kind of ceremonies, or, and I guess throughout history, all nations have these ceremonies where you pledge some kind of allegiance, and we needed one,
10:57:30 but for some reason the original wasn’t good enough, I think, for once in the United States, we got it right in the first phase because this one here seems very benign, compared to the one I see today.
10:57:44 Yeah, that’s right. When it first came out it wasn’t exactly.
10:57:49 Anything official, you know, it wasn’t it wasn’t necessarily state backed nationalistic prayer, so to speak.
10:57:56 It was a former, I guess, a former former officer in the Civil War.
10:58:04 So one of the original versions, they came out with later on. They were the head of like public schools in New York or something like that.
10:58:12 And they came out with it and like you said, to help.
10:58:17 I’ll use the word indoctrinate immigrants, new immigrants to the United States, and help them understand that, I guess, in theory, we are a land of laws, right, we believe in the Republic and the Constitution and, and all those wonderful things and then
10:58:35 over time, it doesn’t get adopted right through as history rolls forward we get some revisions where instead of pledging allegiance to the Republic, eventually we’re pledging allegiance to the United States, or the flag of the United States instead of
10:58:54 the flag of the Republic, as you said, it’s always been the flag that we’re pledging allegiance to, which is kind of peculiar like can we segue here because, as we’re speaking I start to like rethink this it says I pledge allegiance to my flag, and the
10:59:12 Republic for which it stands, so I can, doesn’t that language mean that I could be respectful of the state flag.
10:59:23 I mean if the state flag is still part of the Union, is it not for the Republic for which it stands, what if I’m more of a state’s person. What if I’m more of a federalist, this seems like it speaks to states rights too much.
10:59:37 I don’t know if you think that fits at all.
10:59:51 Totally agree. Yeah, that makes perfect sense. Around this time, especially right in the late 18 even in the late 1800s we didn’t necessarily as individuals in America have a sense of being Americans.
10:59:55 I, you know, I was more, I was from Connecticut, or you’re a New Yorker, or, you know, you more closely identify with the state you’re from and that’s a good point to bring that up because that comes up throughout historical texts, the fact that we don’t
11:00:09 have a national fabric or that the you know the early founders and people came shortly after talked about the fact that we don’t really have a national fabric and when they would go overseas, I’m digressing but like Ben Franklin and stuff when they would
11:00:24 go overseas right on diplomatic missions. They would limit when they would hear people identify with the city, or the state, nobody spoke of being of war from the United States or from America.
11:00:35 So, that is an interesting thing and I think it does reflect that reflects my allegiance to the flag of my Republic, which is my state Republic.
11:00:48 So you’re saying it’s rooted, it’s rooted in somewhere good right trying to build a common thread of commonality, but then it was perhaps hijacked throughout history and taken too far right so the original intention good.
11:01:02 And I do like this idea that if you support your state you still support the union but there’s no.
11:01:09 So let’s, let’s move forward like why.
11:01:14 Yeah, why did they change Mike. Yeah, and I don’t think it expresses any preference like you said you’re either states rights person or your Federalists.
11:01:28 I don’t think the original version trends on any of that everybody gets to to wear that badge, so to speak.
11:01:31 And then, like you’re mentioning time rolls forward and at some point.
11:01:37 We start modifying it for the purposes that suit the times. So, you see start, you start to see some changes that happen around 1920s.
11:01:46 And then eventually in the 1950s in the 1920s, it was a big shift towards recognizing the United States.
11:01:58 Inserting that into the pledge because up until that point it was just to the Republic.
11:02:03 So we definitely want to illustrate the fact that we’re highlighting the union, I think there was another piece to that Ray when we were doing the research right and then I mean I just want to say something culturally as well though we’re in the 20s again
11:02:18 I mean, I just want to say something culturally as well though we’re in the 20s again so any of you that are thinking about what are you seeing that’s going on the world is so crazy that the last 20 years were were a major shift in the way we thought,
11:02:33 lived and thought of the American dream and the American people, frankly, from the 20s to the 50s we saw major movements in the rights of people, and we’re there again it’s been 100 years.
11:02:42 The fever pitches here. People feel it. So when we talk about this so what happens when there’s this fever pitch sometimes it’s used to make good policy, and sometimes it’s used to kick the can down the road, and I think doing things like changing the
11:02:56 Pledge of Allegiance right and forcing people to say it in, in schools and then making it about the United States at that point so there was a lot of fervor around this right Mike we found that during this time period especially around this 1924 hour
11:03:12 they changed it basically twice and enhanced it so it was a very dynamic time and they enhanced it because of the essentially the idea was the Monroe Doctrine, that ideal was that the United States interests or all of America so the United States piece
11:03:32 was before first, but then they added United States of America. And I think it’s that whole shift of get away from your individualism and your states and focus on the nation as a whole, and the nation who governs this wild place being the Americas.
11:03:50 And so that’s mostly what it showed me I don’t know if you saw anything different as you look through.
11:03:57 That’s a good point to to bring up about the Monroe Doctrine because that was also a signal to Europe and other global powers at the time that the Americas were for the United States, United States of America, and the Americas are of the United States,
11:04:13 in a sense, so stay out of our backyard, which we’ll talk about some other time because it’s kind of funny.
11:04:20 It’s a little ridiculous on the surface and.
11:04:23 And I don’t think it stands the test time but anyway, it does make it into the pledge after, you know, 1924.
11:04:31 So we’ve got the United States of America. Whoo, and then the last change last major update and went through in 1954.
11:04:38 And this was, this is the era of McCarthyism, right, Rise of communism around the world.
11:04:46 And people you know are worried about our republic form of governance or this idea of self governance and rule by laws is being threat, being threatened by a global rise of communism and so in order to differentiate ourselves on the world stage.
11:05:06 against communism, we picked on something that was unique about the US, but probably went a little too far.
11:05:14 Because it wasn’t the government thinking for itself. It was a bunch of other constituents that band together. To add under God, to our pledge, our pledge of allegiance to the United States.
11:05:27 So, in the 50s we cemented God but this isn’t the only place that happens in the 50s. This is when it gets on to our currency as well right and our coins when we say In God we trust in God We Trust showed up around the same time for the same motivations
11:05:41 is under God showed up in the pledge in the 1950s because we were a Christian nation against atheist communist states.
11:06:00 The truth is, we, we were a state that did not choose a religion that allowed people to practice religion freely. That is not expressed in under God so you can see where the special interest led into the thing Yeah.
11:06:11 We are different from secular communist states because secular communist states typically prevent widespread religion that detracts from interest in the state it detracts from nationalism in the US, we have the freedom to practice any religion you want
11:06:25 regardless of what some religions may say, We have freedom religious freedom as well speech.
11:06:34 So they didn’t celebrate that plurality they didn’t celebrate the freedom aspect they added under God, which is very interesting, and doesn’t reflect the whole nation, necessarily, but definitely the interest group that got it modified in the 50s.
11:06:52 It reflects something that we should talk about after mid roll but I want to be clear that the you know my the research we found is that the daughters of the revolution were involved in this.
11:07:07 And there was a huge push from the organization and there were very very strict religious organizations who started to change the pledge. And basically in ye old fashion, they did.
11:07:21 they created what they created a.
11:07:24 Something that went viral. In the old days, and they eventually, use the old groundswell of public opinion to change it, but the people behind it, it just seemed quite nefarious and that’s always what’s disappointing to me about history is you always
11:07:39 pull back the layers and see there’s really bad news, but I also don’t understand why we don’t dive deeper into it as a culture, because it’s quite interesting because it’s there’s bad guys all over the world.
11:07:53 And band is relative.
11:07:55 Some people just believe in belief systems I suppose that are misguiding them. Right.
11:08:06 I hope to assume that they have had good intentions but their methods were very poor.
11:08:14 And now we have to live with it live with it, or fix it. So,
11:08:21 with that, how about time for a message from our sponsor citizen do good
11:08:30 politics is war, simply without bloodshed.
11:08:36 A saying paraphrase from Mao Zedong that rings true today.
11:08:42 Pause.
11:08:45 How do you say mouse last day.
11:08:47 Or do we just say mo complicated because the region.
11:08:52 I would say Mao Zedong. Now, I’ve held, I’ve heard mountain song. So, I think you were doing it fine. Is that what you’ve heard it as.
11:09:05 No. Oh you’ve not heard is anything. You’re trying, you’re talking about the Communist leader Right, yeah.
11:09:11 Now, mountains on nowadays, like I think you’re gonna say man.
11:09:16 Now say Mo. People know if they don’t.
11:09:20 But yeah, it’s like, He’s good. He’s moving back into philosopher we just say saw like Socrates, love it. Yeah.
11:09:26 I’ll give you another marker.
11:09:28 Yeah, I’m not saying be like him.
11:09:38 But he had, it doesn’t mean he didn’t say prophetic things. Oh yes, you learn from history like you read what is it, I think Mark Millie had the challenge because everyone’s upset that he’s reading.
11:09:46 You know about communists leaders and such like know you understand your enemy. Right.
11:09:51 Yeah. And, and get all the good ideas regardless of how horrible the person might have been who had them.
11:09:59 I mean, that the idea is wholly separate from the person. Yes.
11:10:04 Yes. Tricky it’s difficult because we like to idolize or uplift or promote or whatever but it’s like, oh no I don’t want to do that, but this idea is powerful and important and we should not lose it, because we didn’t like the person.
11:10:18 It’s weird slippery slopes.
11:10:20 All right.
11:10:22 Hi, Linda you’re going to restart it. Okay, yeah.
11:10:32 Politics is war, simply without bloodshed, saying paraphrased from now that rings true to today.
11:10:43 The war for liberty and justice for us all, is never over, and every battle counts, our republic still holds the promise of our Republic, and it is up to us to unleash its potential.
11:10:55 The time is now to reimagine ourselves and our systems of governance, for the dawning of a new age.
11:11:02 We are a proud sponsor of the citizens prerogative podcast, a major partner in spreading the good word about civic love, and the power of change for us all.
11:11:13 Citizen do good we plan to continue to have these conversations, so that all citizens are encouraged to invest in themselves, and in their communities.
11:11:22 Keeping that goal in mind, we need your help to stay on mission and grow this community, help spread the word by sharing your favorite posts or citizens prerogative podcast episode from our sponsors Facebook page.
11:11:36 Citizen do good, feel free to use the hashtag CDG when you share.
11:11:41 Feel free to share any suggestions you have directly through the Contact Us page at our website at citizen do good, calm. Thanks for your support.
11:11:52 Hey, I’m kind of amazed as we start to peel back this topic how they’re trying again.
11:11:59 You know they’re trying the old, old tropes again they’re they’re pulling communism out there throwing that buzzword around giving it momentum, all in the sake of changing our republic again.
11:12:13 All in the name sake of trying to change the literature that’s available in our schools and our structures, it’s, it’s strange and people should feel kind of like they’re going crazy because it is it’s, it’s a crazy group of people trying the old thing
11:12:29 that worked this whole communism game, where they switched up the Pledge of Allegiance.
11:12:34 If you really pull back it looks like the same card games being played. And I don’t think the people are going to fall for it again I think we’re finally above it due to the access of information that’s available to people but I believe that based on
11:12:49 just what we’re seeing here is that they’re just playing the same old card, and many people are falling for it.
11:12:56 Many people don’t have their poker face ready for this.
11:13:00 But we, I believe that citizen do good has enabled us to really be in a position to try to help you along.
11:13:09 But I don’t know how you feel about that Mike is this is this is this a time or are we in a paradox living in a, a second version of what they pulled off before like hey we got we change the entire country last time right the 1950s saw a substantial changes
11:13:25 in in progress, but also also some restrictions right and then progressively we’ve seen voting rights start to degrade etc etc. So, are we back at that boiling point.
11:13:41 You know it’s a it’s a really interesting thing, this group psychology and motivation around, fear, hate, the things that take us away from collaboration construction creation.
11:13:58 There many sides to each of us.
11:14:04 And it’s a choice all of us after me.
11:14:08 What’s the phrase the Wolfie feed, which will which bear which which aspect of your personality, because there’s multiple versions of each aspect, you can create it just depends on on what you feed and when I’m trying to bring it back to you not to be
11:14:27 so highfalutin or esoteric or whatever out there about it, is just this idea that it’s always a current there’s always a little bit of warm and a little bit of cold in the water, sometimes they blend really well sometimes they really contrast against
11:14:40 each other but it’s always swirling in the same body of water in the same body of people in the same body of minds in groups, and fear. There are some clear telltale signs and in when you take a step back, it’s the easiest way to test it is what you know
11:15:03 where, what is the motivation, where is it coming from what motivation is it trying to stoke within me. Is it playing my fear chord. Is it playing my anger chord is it playing my joy chord is it playing, you know, is it, is it speaking to something that
11:15:21 motivates me to do something good for others, or to attack others who want wolf is this feed.
11:15:38 The one that wants to attack or the one that wants to love. And it’s tricky because I’m just talking about the mechanism. Right, they use fear one way or another, whether it’s communism.
11:15:47 It’s the fear, you’re going to lose your country whatever you think that is.
11:15:54 It’s. It doesn’t matter insert noun, fear comes before the fear of or the loss of.
11:16:03 And the same was happening here we were fighting communism but there, they were fighting a different war so to the point you were making.
11:16:10 I guess the boogeyman effect right oh be afraid of communism and in order to do that, we’re going to take these actions but these actions are not the common nudism war actions.
11:16:20 We’re not taking actions to fight the communism war we’re stoking your fear and getting the motivation behind this kind of how we went to a war in Iraq and stuff is under one set of pretenses getting you excited about one set of ideas but the real motivation
11:16:34 the real life, real reason they’re doing it is just to push some other agenda.
11:16:40 Some other things going on. So it’s multi layer. Now, I don’t think it matters as much.
11:16:50 What their agenda is not unless I’m, you know, I’m working for the Justice Department, and I’m putting together a court case but just as a citizen on the sidelines.
11:17:00 All I need to do is get my fear test out my sniff test is their fear is their anger, what is this group, what is the purpose of this change is this change bringing us together is this collaborative is is constructive, Or is this going to leave me angry.
11:17:17 This is gonna leave me, fearful, you know, and and is my next choice. My next action being decided based on that. That’s what’s most important right now because we’re, we’re in that state, like you said, you know, the pendulum swinging.
11:17:35 We’re in a very high energy time high emotion time.
11:17:40 And we have to be careful because these are the moments when people can tip things very easily.
11:17:47 And that’s what happened in one of these times I’m harping on this and it sounds weird and crazy but that it, I can just say this bullet point 1954, and I, I’m trying to give you the flavor and the color because this is what it was like this is what it
11:18:00 felt like for people.
11:18:03 And I know some people feel it more than others but I think everybody feels it in some way. Right, everybody’s on high anxiety because the common enemy is not outside of the United States that feels like it’s in the United States right now.
11:18:15 It feels like it’s in the United States right now. And that’s how it was back then, when communism McCarthyism and everything was happening, people were spying on their neighbors and all kinds of crazy things so we have to be cautious, we have to, you
11:18:27 know, we don’t want to go back we don’t want to repeat some of these things we need to remember these lessons
11:18:35 bogeyman effect there’s no truth is, where they had the same challenges we do they were they were Americans, just like we were so they have the same oppressive police system, probably an equitable pay, same system same issues.
11:18:50 Same pendulum, we’re all working from the same thing so we really have to identify what happened what caused these things and and learn from them so we’re not saying that it’s the answer to everything but you know especially for for Mike and I we dig
11:19:03 into these subjects we go deeper, and then we go deeper again to make sure we’re understanding the topic where it came from. I always knew about the communists like we changed it because of communism, but to understand that there were actual political
11:19:15 organizations that were creating groundswell and religious organizations specifically that had a motivation, and that’s what’s disappointing if there wasn’t this great intention and a little girl came up with it and the whole nation fell in love with
11:19:29 her, and decided to do it. There’s nothing beautiful or poetic about the story behind the Pledge of Allegiance and every component of it should be removed I think every component that isn’t part of its original value should be removed and I think there’s
11:19:44 no other answer to the Pledge of Allegiance from a solution standpoint.
11:19:50 Yeah.
11:19:51 Yeah, we’ll have some call to actions, we’re going to take a stab at replacing, I can take a stab at replacing the Pledge of Allegiance because I don’t want to let it go.
11:19:59 I want to make it better. I want to change it for a new age.
11:20:06 But before we get there just a little bit about the controversies because we know the Pledge of Allegiance you you opened us up today on the episode about taking a knee or kneeling and I think it’s around this idea of controversy around the Pledge of
11:20:20 Allegiance and free speech and, and we don’t want things to get lost or caught up in all this craziness out here right now that we’re in, we’re in it’s around us so we have to try and control ourselves as much as we can.
11:20:33 And how we think about these things but taking a step back.
11:20:36 We all have the freedom of speech, and likewise we have the freedom not to speak, we have the freedom not to participate, and specifically in regards to the pledge, there’s a long history of of courts protecting individuals liberties and to not speak
11:20:55 not say the pledge, you’re not required to.
11:21:00 And that’s fine and it’s interesting because it’s the same concept with religion, you are free. You’re free from having to have any religion in the state is required not to condone any religion, like it’s just, you know, live and let live hands off be
11:21:17 free. Do what you want to do, as long as you’re not murdering people, whatnot, right, we have those laws.
11:21:23 Um, same thing with speech. So, somebody doesn’t want to say the pledge Soviet you wonder about it, ask them the question. This is not something that we need to be dividing and tearing each other up and over and up and down about.
11:21:38 That’s, it’s not the purpose of it, I mean the purpose of it is to, In my opinion Stoke that kind of perspective, it’s a view. It’s your relationship with the Republic.
11:21:50 And you know what, if you’re sour about it, it’s your right to air, your grievances.
11:21:56 Respect. Respect that right right and I want to be that I love this Michael it’s a good conversation on that because someone has the right to have this feeling to protest, has the right to ignore that.
11:22:15 what’s your problem and they have the right to not respond. That’s the beauty of our circular system of protection. It’s all about us and the in the government and the authority and our teachers, nobody wanted us to know that we actually have every right
11:22:26 to tell people to shove it.
11:22:30 We got to fix that too.
11:22:34 Thank you. That’s all I’ve got for controversy so we can move into call to action.
11:22:39 It’s all good and, frankly, for me the call to action is kneeling I haven’t been in a situation yet, where I could kneel because of coven but I’m waiting for that situation where I well if there’s a flag, and there’s a pledge of allegiance and what I
11:22:53 believe the right call to action is to have the, the original Pledge of Allegiance in your pocket. This is what I’m going to do have the original Pledge of Allegiance in my pocket, and I’m going to kneel and when people have a problem.
11:23:05 I’m going to give them the card with citizen do good, calm on it, and I’m going to tell them that I will stop kneeling once we return to the original Pledge of Allegiance.
11:23:18 Why don’t you give it to us for one more time so everybody can hear it.
11:23:22 Or do you want me to go.
11:23:23 I pledge allegiance to my flag, and the Republic for which it stands, one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
11:23:35 You know without all those extra words, it’s pretty clear.
11:23:41 I agree, crystal clear.
11:23:46 All right, so I appreciate that. So the first call to action is Feel free to kneel or do whatever you want.
11:23:55 When it comes to the pledge, or participate because sometimes it feels good.
11:24:01 I appreciate the pledge. I like the idea of a pledge but I also agree that it should be a tool that we can wield and and use for us, for our own purposes and our relationship with the Republic.
11:24:17 So,
11:24:17 with that spirit in mind, I offer you an alternative Pledge of Allegiance.
11:24:25 I pledge allegiance to the Constitution of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, among the stars, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
11:24:42 This episode has been brought to you by subtlety.
11:24:51 We’re all about the semantics On today’s episode but I think you got the big picture here.
11:24:57 Try not to get down on the pledge.
11:24:59 Unless you’re trying to say something about it.
11:25:13 Think that’s gonna wrap this up for today’s episode.
11:25:16 We’ve been your house. Thank you, to Mr. Raymond one Jr.
11:25:21 Thank you, Mr Pisco tell you this truly has been a pledge of allegiance to the people. I believe all citizens.
11:25:30 It’s been something that’s for sure.
11:25:34 Very information on this and other episodes head over to citizen do get calm and click on podcast, while you’re there hit up the Contact Us page and leave a comment, we’d love to hear from the community.
11:25:44 Special thanks to you, our listeners, we saved the best for last. You are the best and you have been for years. Thank you for your support. We know it’s painful and we love you.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What are your thoughts?