Do we prefer our loyalty by oath, or by action?
To pledge or not to pledge? That is the question!
Believe it or not, when I was 16, I had to sign a loyalty-oath statement affirming my allegiance to the United States. It was a requirement for taking a summer job at a fast-food chain restaurant. I don’t recall whether the State of Delaware or the fast-food chain required to me sign such a document. I only remember thinking it was absurd.
I was hardly a subversive. What could I, as a teenager, have done to threaten the security of the United States? The chain I worked for sold both hamburgers and Kentucky Fried Chicken. Colonel Sanders’ blend of herbs and spices was billed as a closely guarded secret. But I doubt I could have sold that recipe to the Russians. I assume that this loyalty-oath requirement was an arbitrary holdover from the Red-Scare McCarthy era. Remember when fluoridated water was held to be a communist plot to weaken our minds?
What made me think of this was former Bremerton mayor Cary Bozeman’s heartfelt, eloquent defense of the Pledge of Allegiance. In his column for the Kitsap Sun Bozeman laments the 2022 decision of the Bremerton City Council to stop opening their meetings by reciting the Pledge and by listening to an invocation. (“Traditions unite us, and Bremerton should restore the Pledge,” Apr. 26, 2024)
Back in the 1950s, when I was in a public elementary school, we started every day by reciting the Pledge of Allegiance and the Lord’s Prayer. I dare say none of us really thought about the significance of either one. We just mouthed the words, and I don’t recall any teacher commenting about why this tradition was important.
By an “invocation,” I assume Bozeman means a non-denominational prayer. All well and good, but over the years I’ve heard many an invocation at a secular organization invoke the name of Jesus. And I’ve wondered if the non-Christians among us felt marginalized by that.
In 1954, the phrase “Under God” was added to our Pledge of Allegiance. Okay. That’s non-denominational and ecumenical, but it does insinuate that God is on our side. As I’ve written before, that’s a presumptuous, arrogant assumption to make. It has led us astray on the world stage and is currently exacerbating the political division now plaguing our nation.
But that doesn’t bother me as much as the subtext of the Pledge. Yes, as Bozeman claims, it is a tradition that unites us. But it also bespeaks a national insecurity. Is there a McCarthyesque suspicion that some among those assembled may be disloyal or just falling out of affection for our country? Must our national pride and allegiance be repeatedly reaffirmed? Some things, it seems to me, can be taken for granted. We should be presumed to be loyal to the United States until proven otherwise.
There is also the redundancy of pledging allegiance to a flag, an inanimate object and a mere symbol of what it represents. As the critically acclaimed poet and author W.D. Ehrhart has argued, "When the symbols of freedom replace the substance of freedom, we're all in a whole lot of trouble." I would remind everyone concerned that the U.S. Supreme Court refused to outlaw flag burning.
From my perspective, however, the real sticking point in the Pledge is the promise of “liberty and justice for all.” Sad to say, but it’s not true. It’s an aspiration we’ve yet to realize.
Some, I expect, will consider my quibbles here to be unpatriotic. There is, however, a fine line between reasoned patriotism and chauvinism. It was the 18th-century sage Samuel Johnson who reportedly said “patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel.” Johnson was prescient. Witness how Donald Trump refers to his MAGA followers — even those who stormed the Capitol — as “patriots.” Trump has given patriotism a bad name.
I believe I’m as patriotic as the next guy. Maybe more so because I went to war on behalf of this country and served 20 years in the Marine Corps. And I’m not an elitist who considers himself above ceremony, ritual, and tradition. I value the traditional rites that mark major milestones in our lives — baptisms, bar and bat mitzvahs, Catholic confirmations, graduations, marriages, funerals — for instance. I just don’t rank the Pledge of Allegiance among them. I support the decision of the Bremerton City Council to forego it.
Contact Ed Palm at majorpalm@gmail.com.
This article originally appeared on Kitsap Sun: Supporting Bremerton's council position on the Pledge of Allegiance
