[Vision2020] LMT: COMMENTARY: The pledge helps make us divisible

[Area Man (Dan C)]

Tom Henderson weighs in.

(Side note, Tom:  It's C-H-A-N-E-Y)
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COMMENTARY: The pledge helps make us divisible

Tom Henderson

Psst. Moscow Mayor Nancy Cheney hates America. Pass it on. 

No doubt many people will. 

Nancy, Nancy, Nancy. 

She showed a dim understanding of America and its core values when she
decided to stop opening city council meetings with the Pledge of
Allegiance. 

Cheney made the mistake so many liberals do. She said the pledge risked
becoming meaningless -- recited more by rote than patriotic fervor. 

The pledge meaningless? Oh, it has meaning. 

You can find that meaning in the thousands upon thousands of patriotic
Americans whose blood runs just a little swifter when the flag of their
country is unfurled and they place their hands over their hearts. 

It is then and only then -- at that moment of profoundest patriotism --
that they can look out of the corner of their eye and see who isn't
participating. A spiritual epiphany comes to them when they realize that
socialist in the second row stops moving his lips during the "under God"
part. 

They always suspected he hated God. 

Suddenly, a warm feeling envelops the assembled crowd as they wrap
themselves in a communal blanket of moral and spiritual superiority over
the hippies and freaks no doubt responsible for the decay of the
American family. 

The pledge serves a vital function in our society. It separates and
identifies those who hate God and country -- with the odd Jehovah's
Witness thrown in as a bonus prize. 

It proves particularly useful for politicians. George Bush the Elder had
a field day with Michael Dukakis during the 1988 presidential campaign.
Dukakis, Bolshevik that he was, refused to sign a bill in Massachusetts
to force children to recite the Pledge of Allegiance. 

When I was in Oregon, lots of conservatives hated state Rep. Lane
Shetterly for supporting gay rights and exhibiting frequent fits of
rationality. 
So Shetterly managed to avoid the lynch mob by introducing a bill
similar to the one Dukakis vetoed in Massachusetts. This finally proved
that Shetterly, the head of his church choir, really wasn't an agent of
Satan. 

Still, Satan's minions are everywhere. 

As a newspaper editor, I received half a dozen calls when a reporter
took notes instead of pledging allegiance to the flag during a meeting
of the Hubbard Hop Festival. 

The callers took this as further evidence that reporters everywhere are
liberal scumbags who hate America. The fact that this particular
reporter had long hair and a beard didn't help either. 

I assured the callers that, yes, many of our editorials were liberal.
But no, we didn't have a socialist agenda. And even if we did, slanting
the coverage of the hop festival would be a damn poor way to pursue it. 

Today the Hubbard Hop Festival, tomorrow the world? Give me a break. 

One caller told me this was the same reporter who failed to clap during
a children's music recital the previous week. So not only did this
person hate America, he also hated small children. 

That's so like the media. 

Naturally, I questioned the reporter. He admitted he felt uneasy
pledging allegiance during the meeting or clapping during the recital.
Don't such things compromise one's journalistic integrity? 

Oh, for crying out loud. 

I told him to write good stories. If he had personal prejudices against
hops or singing children, keep them out of the paper. That would say
more about his journalistic integrity than whether or not he recited the
pledge or clapped for the kiddies. 

As for pledging and clapping, do what feels comfortable. Recite or don't
recite. Clap or don't clap. However the spirit moves you. You can be a
patriot and not pledge allegiance. 

Likewise, the first thing a foreign terrorist would do is salute the
flag at a public gathering. 

You can't really tell anything about a person by his or her willingness
to do something as part of a group. 

No matter what anyone else says. 
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Tap 'er light, Moscow.

DC