To me, the Pledge of Allegiance was a hypnotic mantra, used to lull Americans to believe that they lived in the greatest country in the world, "under God", with "Liberty and Justice for all"... yeah, sure! Wake up America. It's not so.
I did not know about the Pledge of Allegiance when I came to this country, some thirty years ago. I learned about it when attending church and when I started to teach my children at home. I could not understand why people would pledge allegiance to a flag... that sounded so bizarre. I would pledge allegiance to God, to a group... but to a flag? It made no sense at all.
How many times do children recite it during their upbringing? 12 years, at 180 days of school a year, makes 2160 times, not counting the times outside of school where the Pledge is recited.
This past week, I was invited to several functions, which started with... you guessed it... the Pledge of Allegiance. No, not again! I certainly could NOT participate in that indoctrination. Integrity is very important to me. I do not want to say something I don't believe in and choke on.
This morning, I was reading again about the results of a research done by the HeartMath Institute on the power of love and influence. Briefly, the research had for objective to see if cells in a petri dish could be influenced by thoughts. One group of people would try to influence the cells by putting themselves in a loving state (there is a specific brain/heart wave when one reaches the universal love frequency). The second group would try to influence the cells by sending them positive intentions, but without being in the universal love state. The third group would put themselves in the universal love state AND send positive intentions to the cells.
When universal love AND positive intentions were used concurrently, especially coming from trained practitioners, cells would heal, bacteria and yeast would stop growing, cancer cells would stop progressing, etc...
Epiphanies do not necessarily come during meditation or while studying, at least not for me. I was cleaning my bathroom, of all things, when an inner question came to my attention. What if I were to use the Pledge of Allegiance as a loving, positive intention? What if it was not an indoctrinating mantra, but as a positive, loving intention for this country? Wow... that took on a different meaning.
I pledge allegiance to the flag... ok, the flag is a symbol, I can live with that.
Of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands... a republic is quite a good form of government... I can live with that.
One nation, under God... Wow... wouldn't that be great? That is a good INTENTION
Indivisible... Another good INTENTION
With LIBERTY AND JUSTICE FOR ALL! Can there be anything better?
As of this morning, I can recite the Pledge of Allegiance as a prayer of restoration and as loving intention for this great country.
1 comment:
As a newcomer, albeit several years ago, you may have missed the importance of the "Establishment Clause" contained in the First Amendment to the US Constitution. It says that congress may not establish a religion (or interfere with the private practice of religion). The words "under God" were inserted into the pledge by congress in 1954. In a court ruling later invalidated on technical procedural grounds, the 9th circuit court of appeals concluded that congress' 1954 acknowledgment of the existence of a single deity called "God" established a national religion of monotheism. Of course, there are many American Hindus, American Buddhists, and so forth and so on, who do not acknowledge the existence of the Judeo-Christian God. When part of the nation hopes everyone is united under their faith, you can bet the rest of the nation hopes the same thing about THEIR faith. What would REALLY be great is if we simply dropped the phrase "under God" and taught our children about the Founding Fathers' legacy of equal religious liberty and dignity for all faiths, regardless of creed.
But then the folks who profit from religious conflict would have to find honest work, so that is probably unlikely. (And no, I am not one of those people. I blog about godly politics for free and I do it in my spare time to give something back to this great nation.
NubisPertusus.wordpress.com, proud flag flier for troops and liberty, but not theocracy
Post a Comment