Posted by:

Heartbroken Mommy

on June 28, 2005 at 02:16:44:

The phrase ?under God? was not part of the original pledge adopted by Congress as a patriotic tribute in 1942, at the height of World War II. Congress inserted the phrase more than a decade later, in 1954, when the world had moved from hot war to cold.

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2002/06/28/MN113142.DTL

The Rev. Bellamy agonized over every word when he wrote the Pledge of Allegiance in 1892, and the result was: "I pledge allegiance to my Flag and the Republic for which it stands, one nation indivisible, with liberty and justice for all."

Then came the dreary, politically motivated revisionists.

In the early '20s, the Daughters of the American Revolution, fearing that loathsome immigrants would salute the flags of their home countries, changed "my Flag" to "the flag of the United States of America."

Bellamy hated that change, according to Baer. He probably would have hated "under God," added by Congress in 1954 at the urging of the Knights of Columbus.

Those words threw off the meter of the pledge -- take it from a guy who was in elementary school when the phrase was added. I already thought I was swearing "a legion" to someone named Richard Stans, and then I thought we were "under guard," because after all, it was the Cold War.

Follow Ups:

• ROFLMFAO! Correct about what exactly? --- Gecko 06:27:00 06/28/05

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