The Pledge of Allegiance

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America

I am six years old, in first grade and I have never said The Pledge of Allegiance before. At my Quaker kindergarten, we didn’t recite it. I’m nervous to get it right. Each morning as I stand with the class, I whisper to myself ‘I put my right hand over my left heart’. 

My school is in a city on Long Island. We had just moved from an apartment to a house. It’s a short drive to where my dad works, and the schools are good. The year is 1964. I don’t think about being American, white, or Jewish. What I think about is learning to read and making friends, both of which I accomplish. This will turn out to be a tough year for me. 

And to the Republic for which it stands…

I’m twelve and starting 8th grade. It’s 1970 and we’ve moved to a new town. Hempstead, the town we leave, has been torn apart by race riots, and over the summer while I was away at camp, the high school burned down. My mother unilaterally decides we will move. 

Our new school feels huge, it is the junior high for the entire town. My old school was a neighborhood K-8, my entire 7th-grade class was about 50 kids. At South Side Junior High in Rockville Centre, there are about 1500 kids, mostly white, many Jewish. We stand each day to recite The Pledge. Already I’m oblivious to the words I’m saying and what they mean. I only vaguely understand why there were riots and why the Hempstead High School was set on fire. We learn about the internment of the Japanese during WWII. 

One Nation, under God…

I’m sixteen and questioning the existence of God. Though my family is not religious we attend Hebrew school. I go on Monday afternoons and Saturdays. They show us footage taken at Nazi concentration camps, graphic and horrific. We see people being shot and shoveled into mass graves and footage filmed when the camps were liberated. We must never forget, we must carry these stories with us. Most of my friends have grandparents who escaped the Nazis. My friend’s father has a number tattooed on his wrist. America did not welcome the Jews.

Even in high school we still recite The Pledge each morning, during homeroom. Everyone stands, puts their hand on their heart, and recites the words we’ve all repeated five days a week for most of our lives. The words barely register anymore. The Vietnam war ends in 1973 and in August of 1974, Richard Nixon resigns as President. I graduate in 1976 and the entire country is consumed with our bi-centennial.

Indivisible… 

It is 2016 and things have been going badly for me for a few years. I’m feeling lost and depressed. My life has fallen apart. After leaving a job I thought would be my last, I spend a few years bouncing around looking for a new one that will stick. I’m stressed about pretty much everything, but I’m optimistic about one thing; in the upcoming election, we will choose our first woman President. I cry when I vote. Then after the vote is tallied I cry for a week.

By June of 2020, we have become a country divided. Our Nation is clearly not indivisible. At this moment we are as deeply divided as we have been in my lifetime. And probably as divided as we were prior to and during the Civil War. Can a house divided against itself stand? Do children still recite the Pledge of Allegiance?

With liberty and justice for all.

I have been thinking about the Pledge. It is a pledge we, as Americans, make to our country and there are implicit promises we are given in return. More than a promise broken, it has always been a bogus promise. There have been two weeks of protests for justice not just for George Floyd, but for centuries of oppression of Black and Brown people. America has justice for some, but not all. The person who should be leading us is making things worse, and his cult-like followers believe that they are Americans and patriots, but I am not. They do not believe we are one nation under God.

I cannot quote passages from the Constitution, but I know what is right and I know what America should be. We must pledge allegiance to each other and insist on liberty and justice for all.