“I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”
This is the pledge we learned in the 1940s, on our first day of kindergarten. The principal’s voice came over the loudspeaker; we were told to stand, place our hands over our hearts, and recite the pledge with him. It was the opening ritual for all NYC school children. We didn’t know what it meant, but we knew it mattered.
On weekly assembly days, we wore dark bottoms with white tops and red ties. For boys, it was a special honor to be chosen as a color guard, carrying or accompanying the flag to the front of the hall. We loved how the pledge ended: “One nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.” It echoed our families’ values: “Justice, justice you shall pursue.” Decades later, we’re still thinking about the pledge, and especially about how it was changed.
That change happened in 1954, when, in reaction to the threat of “Godless Communism,” President Eisenhower signed a bill inserting the words “under God” between “one nation” and “indivisible.” We stumbled, trying to insert the new words. Good people who didn’t believe in God had been divided out.
At the time, many people felt the insertion was a good way to assert the moral superiority of U.S. freedom over godless Soviet communism. But others felt it separated us, because now we were pledging loyalty to a flag that represented only believers. This debate over two words reminded us that national unity has always been more complicated than our childhood ceremonies suggested. Nearly three-quarters of a century later, we are still struggling with ways to keep a diverse country united.
In the years that followed, more and more people started refusing to repeat this new pledge and even began desecrating flags at public events. The new language survived legal challenges (though the core question has never come before the Supreme Court), as did the right to refuse to pledge and the right to defile the flag we were taught to love.
National fault lines inherent in the Constitution were always there, of course, but as middle-class white children in northern states, we had not yet seen the prominent “Whites Only” signs so ubiquitous in the South, much less the equally ubiquitous unwritten signs saying the very same thing in many of our northern neighborhoods.
Symbols matter. The Statue of Liberty, for example, symbolizes our love for freedom. Sadly, the flag and the history of our pledge to it continue to divide us. Desecrating the American flag has been a form of anti-government protest that so many Americans find extremely objectionable. In a 1989 speech, Supreme Court justice and conservative champion Anton Scalia said, “If it were up to me, I would put in jail every sandal-wearing, scruffy-bearded weirdo who burns the American flag. But I am not king.”
We all view patriotism through the lens of our childhood and our personal experiences. As a rule, military families are not likely to feel about parades and other demonstrations of nationalism the same way recent immigrant families do.
For us, the government is always suspect, and nationalistic parades, we fear, might be a precursor to harm. Many parents raise their children to respect and be loyal to their government unequivocally. We were taught to always question it. But we were also taught that in the United States, it’s always safe to express views that differ from the government’s.
Why write about this now? Because in 1916, President Wilson proclaimed June 14 “Flag Day” to honor our flag as a symbol of national unity and values, and, given the current climate in this country, this seems an especially appropriate year to observe it.
In keeping with that intention, Age-Friendly Carbondale, in partnership with the Town of Carbondale and its Public Arts Commission, is honoring the history and symbolism of the United States flag, along with celebrating our town’s diversity and unity. We asked residents to tell us where they or their families came from. Then we created a display of the U.S. and Colorado flags, along with state and international flags, standing for the many places Carbondale residents and their families have called home.
From June 13 to 22, this display will grace the Rio Grande Trail where it meets the promenade to Town Center, the flags telling a simple story: A community isn’t made indivisible by pretending we are all the same, but by choosing to stand together despite our differences.
Mature Content is a monthly feature from Age-Friendly Carbondale.