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I pledge to allegiance, to the flag of the United States of America And to the republic, for which it stands, One nation, under God, Indivisable, with liberty and justice for all.
Did I get thatt right, mah fellow Americans? <damn> if one day I develop Alzheimer's its going to be one of the few things I'll remember, it is so deeply set in my long.term memory...<sigh> Half the population is under the age of 18. Tanzania's future is NOW...join the 50% campaign!
A generation ago, it was nearly impossible to get through the American public school system without learning the oath - and equally impossible to forget it after so much practice.
The wane of the pledge from American life is more tied to indifference than passion, says Barbara Truesdell, assistant director of Indiana University's Center for the Study of History and Memory. "It used to be we'd hear it at town meetings and public gatherings," she says. Now, "it's just not a part of daily life." The decline is perhaps most apparent in the classroom - particularly blue-state high schools. "I don't know of any high schools in the area in which the pledge is recited daily. It isn't here," admits a superintendent of a largely liberal suburban Boston school district who asked not to be named because of how contentious the subject can be. "If I insisted on it being recited here - which is not my plan or desire - my career would begin a quick and flaming descent."
"It used to be we'd hear it at town meetings and public gatherings," she says. Now, "it's just not a part of daily life."
The decline is perhaps most apparent in the classroom - particularly blue-state high schools.
"I don't know of any high schools in the area in which the pledge is recited daily. It isn't here," admits a superintendent of a largely liberal suburban Boston school district who asked not to be named because of how contentious the subject can be. "If I insisted on it being recited here - which is not my plan or desire - my career would begin a quick and flaming descent."
On a tangent, I was shocked (and believe me, I'm not easily shocked) to learn recently that as late as the early 1960s Jewish kids in NYC area public schools were forced to recite the Protestant version of the Our Father/"Lord's Prayer." At least, that practice is no more.
OK, I'm going to do this from memory...
I plead alignment to the flakes of the untitled snakes of a merry cow and to the Republicans for which they scam one nacho, underpants with licorice and jugs of wine for owls.
