{"id":246,"date":"2008-03-16T13:25:14","date_gmt":"2008-03-16T13:25:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.uww.edu\/lencho\/?p=246"},"modified":"2018-09-04T13:25:53","modified_gmt":"2018-09-04T13:25:53","slug":"pledge-of-allegiance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.uww.edu\/lencho\/pledge-of-allegiance\/","title":{"rendered":"Pledge of Allegiance"},"content":{"rendered":"

Written in 1892 by Baptist minister and Christian Socialist Francis Bellamy and first published\u00a0\u00a0in\u00a0the popular children\u2019s magazine\u00a0The Youth\u2019s Companion<\/strong>\u00a0to commemorate the 400th anniversary of Columbus Day, and then adopted\u00a0in\u00a0public schools\u00a0as part of the year\u2019s\u00a0Columbus Day observance, the original pledge, recited while standing at salute with arm extended\u00a0toward the flag, was thus . . .<\/p>\n

\u201cI pledge allegiance to\u00a0my flag and the Republic for which it stands, one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.\u201d<\/p>\n

Words ( for example, \u201c. . . of America\u201d . . . . \u201cunder God\u201d . . .)\u00a0have subsequently been added, and the so-called \u201cBellamy salute\u201d was dropped in 1942 after we entered\u00a0to\u00a0war against the Germans, as the symbolism was too close for comfort . . .<\/p>\n

When students from Edgerton High School\u2019s Spanish class recited the Pledge of Allegiance over the school\u2019s intercom, at least one parent, recently retired from the National Guard,\u00a0 was angry enough to complain to school officials, arguing \u201cI believe the troops based this country off the old American values and not the Spanish values\u201d (GazetteExtra.com, Thursday, March 13, 2008).\u00a0 The editors at the\u00a0Janesville Gazette<\/u>\u00a0have dedicated this week\u2019s opinion poll to discovering community opinion on the issue: \u201cIs it disrespectful to say the Pledge of Allegiance in a language other than English?\u201d\u00a0 As I am writing this essay, 67% of the readers responding agree that the pledge should only be done in English.<\/p>\n

This topic strikes a chord for a variety of reasons, ranging\u00a0from the debate over illegal immigrants, to job and salary protection, to the maintenance of a strong national identity. One cleavage issue concerns whether or not we believe that our country\u2019s diversity is a positive or negative thing.\u00a0 For those people wary of diversity, a popular argument is that as an American we should do things the way the majority does.\u00a0 What we have in common is what unites us, and where we differ, we can look to the majority for the broadest sense of common ground.\u00a0 At the level of policy, it follows that since the majority of this country speaks English, we should express our oaths of allegiance in this language.<\/p>\n

As a linguist, I can understand this argument: language is a lot more than an instrument of communication; it is primarily the means through which we express our identity. So there is an interesting tension that results from Latino identity (expressed by using Spanish) laying claim to national allegiance.\u00a0 At the same time I am very uncomfortable with a line of argument that seems universally objectionable as we consider its further applications, for if \u201cwe should do things the way the majority does,\u201d does that mean that, since a majority of Americans identify themselves as Protestant Christians, it is un-American to be Islamic, Buddhist, Jewish, or Catholic? Does it mean that it is un-American to be Republican, given that there are more registered Democrats? Or does it mean that we should be suspicious of men, since women are in the (slight) numerical majority because of their relative longevity in relation to men? Does it mean that as we move away from the average IQ of 100, whether in a negative or positive direction, we are moving into enemy territory?\u00a0 Traitors if we are too stupid or too smart?<\/p>\n

I think that you will agree that the argument for majority rule can look pretty silly.\u00a0 Many people think that America is relatively stable because of its relative linguistic homogeneity.\u00a0 On the other hand, you have to look some before you find countries which have more ethnic, racial, religious, class, and economic diversity than the United States.\u00a0 It is quite a big coincidence if our various successes have occurred entirely in spite of this diversity.<\/p>\n

Photo at top: barracks at Auschwitz, where the \u201cdifferent people\u201d were gathered before the ovens.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Written in 1892 by Baptist minister and Christian Socialist Francis Bellamy and first published\u00a0\u00a0in\u00a0the popular children\u2019s magazine\u00a0The Youth\u2019s Companion\u00a0to commemorate the 400th anniversary of Columbus Day, and then adopted\u00a0in\u00a0public schools\u00a0as part of the year\u2019s\u00a0Columbus Day observance, the original pledge, recited … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56565],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-246","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-language-and-society"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uww.edu\/lencho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uww.edu\/lencho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uww.edu\/lencho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uww.edu\/lencho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uww.edu\/lencho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=246"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uww.edu\/lencho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":247,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uww.edu\/lencho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246\/revisions\/247"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uww.edu\/lencho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=246"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uww.edu\/lencho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=246"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uww.edu\/lencho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=246"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}