All too true.

One case of bowdlerism I find both very instructive and sadly amusing concerns Francis Bellamy, the Baptist minister who wrote the original Pledge of Allegiance in 1892.

I pledge allegiance to my Flag and the Republic for which it stands, one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.'

He started with an act of self-censorship, omitting the word "equality", which, he knew, would not be accepted. Equality? With blacks and women? We'll have none of that, sir! So, to Bellamy's great personal grief, exit "equality".

Then came a rewrite in 1924 by the National Flag Conference to change "my Flag" in "the Flag of the United States of America" (and no other flag) and then a further rewrite by Congress in 1954 to add the obnoxious "under God".

And it is how what has become the symbol of all that is wrong and rancid with America nowadays, was originally written by an utopian Socialist. But don't worry, the kids will never hear about Bellamy himself.