Happy Independence Day and Red Skelton’s Reading of the Pledge of Allegiance

HAPPY
INDEPENDENCE
DAY!

Happy Independence Day to all my American friends, family, and random strangers . . . and to those of you who are not American, that’s okay, Happy Fourth of July to you just because it’s there.

On this day, many Americans reflect upon flag and country and what it means to be American and what sacrifices our forefathers made so that we might sit on our butts having BBQ and watching TV sports on this special day . . . many don’t but that’s fodder for a very different post. Those of us who are living overseas don’t have the holiday per se but that doesn’t mean we don’t celebrate it in our hearts.

One thing about Independence Day in the United States is that one sees a LOT more flags out and about as folks put up the Ol’ Glory to remind themselves and perhaps others of their patriotic pride.

There are plenty of myths and misconceptions about the flag and you can see a number of them over at the Washington Post in their myths series . . . see http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/five-myths-about-the-american-flag/2011/06/08/AG3ZSkOH_story.html. One set of myths mentioned there is in reference to the Pledge of Allegiance to the United States Flag and that got me thinking about some other myths in that direction.

As we’ve come closer to the big day, I’ve noticed more folks circulating a classic video – one that I’ve always considered absolutely beautiful – of the great comedian Red Skelton performing a monologue on the Pledge of Allegiance. I’ve noticed that most folks focus on one particular bit and miss some other important points. Here’s the piece for your benefit:

A whole lot of folks will zero in and focus on that last bit about prayer and the pledge and miss an important point in Skelton’s speech, one that I think is very important indeed . . . the Pledge didn’t always have the words “under God” in it, far from it, for most of the pledge’s existence it had no reference to deity at all.

As a schoolboy, one of Red Skelton’s teachers explained the words and meaning of the Pledge of Allegiance to his class. Skelton later wrote down, and eventually recorded, his recollection of this lecture. It is followed by an observation of his own. Here’s the text of Skelton’s reading, which I think is beautifully done and well worth being reminded of on this day (from a television broadcast in 1969):

The old sage called the children together and said–

“Boys and girls, I have been listening to you recite the Pledge of Allegiance all semester and it appears that it has become monotonous to you or could it be you do not know the meaning of those words. If I may, I would like to recite the Pledge and give to you a definition of the words.

  • I—-meaning me, an individual, a committee of one.
  • Pledge—-dedicate all of my worldly goods to give without self pity.
  • Allegiance—-my love and my devotion.
  • To the Flag—-our standard, Old Glory, a symbol of freedom. Wherever she waves, there is respect because your loyalty has given her a dignity that shouts freedom is everybody’s job.
  • Of the United—-that means that we have all come together.
  • States—-individual communities that have united into 48 great states. 48 individual communities with pride and dignity and purpose, all divided with imaginary boundaries, yet united to a common cause, and that’s love of country.
  • Of America.
  • And to the Republic—-a republic, a state in which sovereign power is invested in representatives chosen by the people to govern. And government is the people and it’s from the people to the leaders, not from the leaders to the people.
  • For which it stands!
  • One nation—-meaning, so blessed by God.
  • Indivisible—-incapable of being divided.
  • With Liberty—-which is freedom and the right of power to live one’s life without threats or fear or any sort of retaliation.
  • And justice—-The principle and quality of dealing fairly with others.
    For all.—-which means, boys and girls, it’s as much your country as it is mine.”

Since I was a small boy, two states have been added to our nation, and two words have been added to the Pledge of Allegiance “under God.” Wouldn’t it be a pity if someone said, “That’s a prayer” and that would be eliminated from schools, too?

Of course, Skelton was more prophetic than he might have known as most schools did eventually stop requiring school children recite the pledge – mainly because of those two words added in 1954 (the pledge itself was written by Francis Bellamy in 1892 for a magazine competition and was not officially adopted by congress as the national pledge until 1942. In its history, the pledge has been revised three times, including that 1954 amendment Skelton mentions of the addition of the words “under God” the the pledge.

When Skelton performed his reading, the monumental legal cases regarding the removal of prayer from public school as a nod to religious freedom and separation of church and state had just occurred. Most folks who hear his reading assume that the removal of the pledge on such grounds is unreasonable . . . it is not, at least in my opinion. It is the addition of the words “under God” that muddied the use of the pledge and things would be so much cleaner if it were edited back to a previous variation where those words do not appear. Of course, even then the waters are not completely clear as some folks prefer not to speak such an oath as their religious views specifically prohibit swearing of oaths – I am speaking of certain denominations of Christian here and have not yet gone into the murky waters of those who practice non-Christian religions but who are clearly American and who love their nation as much as any other American and certainly should have a right not to swear an oath to a deity they do not worship in order to be considered a “good American” . . . I know there are those who disagree with my position and that’s okay, feel free to disagree . . . but . . . allow me to have my opinion as well.

In fact, the US House didn’t start reciting the pledge until well after most schools stopped reciting it in 1988 when George HW Bush made it an issue in the presidential campaign against Michael Dukakis who as governor of Massachusetts vetoed a bill that would have required school children to recite the pledge on the grounds that those two words “under God” rendered the pledge unconstitutional . . . the US Senate did not begin reciting the pledge until 1999 so this is all fairly recent.

While it is certainly very well written and most assuredly reminds us of who were are. The pledge was not originally commissioned by the government and it isn’t really all that old despite many folks assuming it’s some sort of founding document.

It’s a good thingie . . . but . . . its use is still filled with controversy.

While many will listen to Skelton’s reading and feel that the pledge has lost it’s power because the school prayer issue and the constitutional interpretation of separation of state and church has perhaps gone too far, some of us believe that the separation is very important and that the issue could have been handled by removing those two words that were NOT part of the original pledge when it was written and not part of the pledge when it was adopted by the US government as the official pledge.

Either way, Skelton’s reading is absolutely beautiful and well worth Americans listening to again on this day.

By the way, for my Canadian friends (of which I have managed to pick up quite a few), Skelton did a similar beautiful reading of the Canadian National Anthem, “O, Canada“, back in 1990 when he visited that country (you can find an mp3 at the Listening Room at http://www.cotra.ca/listeningroom.htm). Many folks see Skelton’s readings as homage to a 1930 reading of the Lord’s Prayer performed on the Amos and Andy radio program in which Amos deconstructs the scripture for his daughter Arabdella (there’s a 1952 version of the piece at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DjqRZSTYKxY.

Once again . . .

HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY!

All the best,
Brian
http://www.briandavidphillips.com