It's a Pledge Thing

Dear America,

you're right NBC, the original document did not contain those vile two words (purely and unabashedly according to you) "Under God."  They were added later, much later.  whatever. you got me.  Yes, it was under Eisenhower, when a certain amount of tweaking occurred, adding the two words that seem to make the entire Left side of the American Body's skin crawl.  again.  shoot the messenger, why don't you...as that seems to work like a charm.

First, the obvious.  The Pledge of Allegiance was created and placed into common practice throughout the years beginning in 1892 -- while through the ages, it was frequently  modified. The last and final version being signed by Congress in 1954.   The thing is, we have a pledge, and it's words are clear, precise, eloquent and patriotic:

"I pledge allegiance

to the flag 

of the United States of America, 

and to the republic 

for which it stands, 

one nation 

under God, 

indivisible, 

with liberty 

and justice 

for all."

All in all, we tweaked it a number of times...first it was "my" flag, then it became "to" the republic...we added, "United States" and "America" -- each at different times -- and then we added "under God."

And we didn't even have "a pledge" for a many years following our birth, which, if I am not mistaken, was 1776 (that is supposed to be where you give a hearty laugh).   The most ironic thing I discovered (just today) is a wee bit of new information on it's creator -- as well as learning just when, in fact, the pledge was formally adopted.

So first, to address the latter, it was not officially signed off by Congress until 1942 [please note, long gap between Bellamy's Pledge of 1892 to 1942...long.  did I say long?].

We are acting like we have had this pledge all along...for hundreds of years already...when in fact...it has never stopped evolving since the late eighteen hundreds...to just last week, when the Supreme Court outright denied yet another case on the matter...but I digress.

To get to the former, Francis Bellamy, our fearless creator who penned the famous pledge, was part of a Christian Socialist movement, and a Free Mason, and was big on following a "fraternity" style rules of order and conduct.  It became widely accepted, at the time of standing to recite the pledge, to also add a "Bellamy Salute" -- which, if you happen to be on the side of those taking issue with crossing our heart and standing to our Pledge of Allegiance to our flag now -- with or without "under God" --   God help you when you realize what we did back in the day.  [can you say heil?]

If your really think about it -- as much as it is patriotic to salute old Glory and all that She stands for -- in a weird way, the salute of the flag raises a concern: are we idolizing a symbol of country over God, or is it one in the same? are we in relationship with a thing, or many things, over a Supreme Thing, while, quite possibly, and shamefully, losing our way?  are we continuing to live with respect, recognition and greater understanding of that which came before -- long before the first words of a pledge were ever uttered?

Now I LOVE LOVE LOVE the FLAG and these here United States -- do not pick my words apart.  I will place my hand over my heart any day, and every day, to this country and for which we stand, united, together, under God, indivisible,  in liberty and justice for all.  THAT  REPUBLIC, IS, and I am all over it with bells on.


AND if you really wish to understand who we are and how we got here -- in order to fully comprehend just how much GOD IS -- and just how ridiculous this "new" conversation we are having on being "under God" or over It really is -- then look no further than our Declaration of Independence.  Our first, and only, document that defines who we are.  Dare to understand the context of the first true Americans, our forefathers, and brothers and sisters.  DARE to go there, and then we can talk.  First paragraph:

"When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume the Powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation."

Equality not of this world -- unparalleled through the ages -- began just so.  Second paragraph:

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.  THAT TO SECURE these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.   Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shown, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, that to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed.  But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security -- Such has been the patient sufference of these Colonies, and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government.  The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States.  To prove this, let these facts be submitted to a candid world."

oh what the heck...here is the rest of it:

"He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences
For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.
He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor."

The list of things in the middle there -- all beginning with "He has" -- is what fascinates me to no end. Can you figure out why a few are highlighted in red?

All things considered,  THIS IS the only pledge that really means a hill of beans.  Whatever else we give meaning to, is of our own volition and concern; there is no order to say the pledge -- but if you choose to do so, then using the version under authority vested by Congress would seem to be the right words to say.  just sayin'.  


Something we might all try -- coupled with the definition of Is under the belief system held by the Free Masons -- is that the definition of Is, that which is, the Supreme Being, the Creator, the God of our choosing -- is simply that.  It is whatever you make It out to Be, or not.  There is no rule; there is no order; there is no fraternity under One Belief System with a Bellamy Salute; as It, is only, whatever meaning you, personally, thoughtfully, give freely of yourself to make.  That is It.


If people really want to have their facts straight (that is, if, in fact, some of us have our panties in a wad over being a country of, under, over or through, God -- the Thing above all other living things)  then get it right; 'you people' would have to go back to every written document ever written and expressly conceived and created through the Power vested in Thee, the Almighty, in a manner that only Divine Providence can Be, Do or Have, being It is in and of this world through us -- and change it all.  'You people' would have to rewrite our entire history -- from birth, through the fire, through the glory, through every waking day since our Declaration of Independence was sealed.  Which, looky there, the calendar shows, we are dating ourselves back to the days of our original intent right now, as we speak.


Being a nation UNDER GOD only affirms original intent and the Magnificence of the Divine Providence that made us.  With all due respect, reciting our Pledge of Allegiance has got nothing on that.  Get over it!


Enough already with all this nonsense surrounding this Nation's 'Natures God', that which we live, work and play under, over, or through and only to be decided by you --  and the least of which, while subject to objection, is nothing new.  Gladly, It IS and It is here to stay.

Make it a Good Day, G

Dear America,

happy Tuesday.

It was a gorgeous Monday morning here in San Diego, the sun was shining high and bright, the temperature already about 70 degrees by 9 am.  My girl, along with one of her best friends, and myself, volunteered at the 3rd Annual Interfaith Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service, a gathering of all faiths with a purpose; it was a day to embrace the teachings of MLK, to come together to do something good for a local landmark -- Balboa Park, and work in community with one another.

We began with multiple prayers, offered by a rabbi from Temple Emanu-El and an Imam from the Islamic Center of San Diego, with the welcoming prayer from the minister of First Church of First United Methodist.  All in all, we prayed to 'Moses...Abraham....Jesus...Mohammed...God' all in one fell swoop. 

I knew going into this thing, I would more than likely be hearing how a prayer sounds from faiths different than my own -- and what a beautiful thing, really, to have a chance to experience God, faith, devotion, ritual -- through another man's eyes.  I have to say, it sounded good; it sounded like we appear to have everyone's faith and belief system respected, and safely protected in the right place in our hearts.

Strikingly noticeable, within the collection of the Christian, Judaic, Islamic, Mormon crowd, was the great disparity of race however; there I was, thinking there would have been a natural attraction to such an event by African-Americans -- but the stark reality of the morning, out of a group of about 150 (an unscientific count), only about six were black.

Granted, it turned out to be  a smaller affair than I thought it would be all the way around -- but honestly, six?

Maybe next year, word will get around -- I'll let you know, as we already intend to go back and do it again...

in part, because I just love the idea of being thrown in with a bunch of people I don't know, having no idea what to expect, and just going with the flow -- especially for something like this -- and low and behold, they actually made us work! 

Within minutes from the start, we began with -- for all intents and purposes -- being a link in a chain gang, directed rather authoritatively by a gal who seems to have been here before; before you could say 'I have a dream' we had two lines canvassed up the side of a hill hauling handfuls of St. John's Wort up from the bottom of the gulch.

Fifteen minutes in, we were all sweating, making jokes about the various shapes of the handfuls of debris, forewarning the next guy of the rogue sticks hanging out just waiting to poke someone in the eye, and making long lost friends of the person to the left of us and to the right.

My girl and her BFF took off in the opposite direction, more intrigued by the task of getting a garbage bag and a trash picker-upper in their hands, along with the possibility of running into a makeshift homestead at the bottom of the canyon, a "hobo" or two, a leftover syringe, or disturbing the local bees -- all of which, I had absolutely know inclination to witness firsthand myself, I stuck with the chain gang on the hill and was perfectly happy.

Before you knew it, we filled two dump trucks and it was picnic time, the end of our hard labor, made light in the company of others, was done.

Perhaps it was sucking up the aroma of St. John's Wort for two hours straight...but more than likely, it was the resplendent combination of community service, a good dose of sunshine, and an honest day's work that enlivened the spirits, nearly erasing the depression of the last couple of weeks.  Having signed up for it weeks before the Tucson shooting, it was serendipitously the perfect remedy to restore my faith in people, generally speaking.

Here's a tidbit I didn't know about MLK -- did you know he was the youngest person to ever receive the Nobel Peace Prize?  A prize he wholeheartedly deserved, of course, for his efforts to bring about civil rights coming from his very own non-violent approach and teachings.  We all grew up to love the man for what he stood for and more important, the way he did it.  It is a lesson still worthy, and maybe more so, today.

If you read G regularly, you would probably pick up that I love advertising --  I am easily entertained by the creativity of the well orchestrated thirty seconds time and time again.   In this moment of recognizing the King of Dreams for the equality of life for all people, especially that of minorities, and specifically African-Americans -- I was recently struck in an ah-hah moment listening to a man of color describe what it was like for him to go onto Ancestry.com.  Feeling hesitant, afraid of what he might find, he discovered "his great, great grandfather was born a slave, but died a businessman."  let me hear an amen to that...

The thing is, America has had their good days, and bad, when confronting the inequality of man; but the truth is, our founders set out on a path to correct the wrongs, to change the mindset of the south -- and did so, knowing we would ALL struggle through hard times until we do.  Even Frederick Douglass, embraced the 3/5ths clause, once he realized how it would directly and immediately affect the proportion of representation of the people, and ultimately have the best chance for changing the course of an absolute tragedy of the human condition for an entire nation of people.

What has changed between the time a man was 'born a slave and died a businessman' until now -- what has permeated into the mindset, what is corrupting the forward leaps and bounds, of the African-American today?  Being white, I have no way of understanding how we can begin moving forward, when for all appearances, we have gone three steps back at the same time...what has changed?

Now, of course, I have my own inklings -- ever since we grew a system of entitlements to give the minority a leg up, we have suffered; ever since we ceased raising our children, of all colors and cultures, to make use of our self-reliant roots, we have suffered; ever since we began to pay people, even when not adding, laboring,  for anything in society, we have suffered; ever since we stopped melting into one, we have suffered.

I believe the national democratic party, and it's leaders, have led the minority down a crooked path; taking a cue from the Iron Man movie of sorts, the left seems to cling to the belief, and the teachings thereof, of something more like "I wanna protect the people I put in harm's way."

But now allow me tie in the actual Saturday afternoon movie I watched, JARHEAD (talk about a crazy dose of violence); the young marine's introduction to boot camp came with a Staff Sergeant yelling at the top of his lungs, "you are no longer black! you are no longer brown! or yellow!...you are green!" 

so take that, if you think you are something special just for the color of your skin...that goes for whitey too.  You no longer belong inside a designated box discriminating your personal background or culture, Hispanic, check, African-American, check, Asian, check, Caucasian, check  -- the new culture is conformity, equally along side the brothers and sisters standing up next to you.  that's it. no more no less.

There is no special favor here, just buck up buttercup and melt into one body of solidarity for a common cause and for all concerned, or else you may be responsible for losing your own life, or the life immediately to your left or to your right.  Look around you...you belong to us, the United States Marine Corps and we tell you -- NO, we command you --  to let go of who you think you are and become one of us.

 NOW.

Well isn't that a yankee doodle dandy way to look at things, huh?

What we have lost in this country, if I may be so bold, is the sense that we are melting into one US, as citizens of the greatest country on the planet!

We have fallen victim to separating by color first-- divided by specific needs and wants and entitlements -- without laboring to come together, self reliant and true, respective of our duty to one another, and stand, side by side, with our hand over our heart (the way Christina Green would want it) and say "I pledge allegiance to the flag, of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all."

For some reason, the audience of that famous afternoon, when Martin Luther King was addressing all people, of all color, giving what has turned out to be his most often quoted lines, has changed.  We are no longer standing side by side, carrying equal share of both the load and the bounty; we have stopped listening to his whole speech, the entire message, for the good of all people and the good of this church (aka USA).

We are no longer conforming to the American way... by culture...in language; our colors are not blending into Red, White and Blue...purple mountains majesty, my @%$.  Where, oh where, is our very own sergeant of arms, in our face and in utter disgust, over the overwhelming and blatant lack of attention to such detail.

Thank God, I still have yesterday embedded in my memory, so that I may dream a little dream for tomorrow.

Make it a Good Day, G

Thank you to all the organizers of a beautiful day...Chinmaya Mission San Diego, Congregation Beth Israel, First Church First United Methodist Church, First Unitarian Universalist Church of SD, Hillel, Islamic Center of SD, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, Temple Emanu-El, and of course,

San Diego Parks and Recreation!  For doing all the heavy lifting, and the trash picking, every other day of the week, year after year.