Red Skelton's Pledge of Allegiance

[Teresa]

Amen.............................

[Ole Granny]

Thank you!  My wish is that everyone could view this and have the same feeling that Red Skelton shared.  How lucky we were to have him.

[Teresa]

Isn't it amazing how God can make the most uncommon people, the greatest the world has known.

[Judy Harder]

Teresa,

when I was a child and when we first got out NEW black and white tv, we were blessed to be allowed to watch this man.

I have always thought he is one of the best comics we have ever had.
I sure do miss the funny and HA HA kind of tv.

Each time I look for entertainment on tv, the comics are NOT funny anymore and I am so sad that the youngun's will never
know the original funny men. I can't remember the last time I actually hurt from laughing so hard; but, I do remember laughing at this gentle soul.

Thanks for bringing back the memories..............And for reminding me/us how much we need this in our hearts and lives.

Tears are also a 'good thing', too

[Catwoman]

This brought tears to my eyes.  The petty differences that separate us wither to obscurity underneath the glaring light of that which unites us all...the brilliant light of that which is the United States of America.  And, even though I be an old woman of dubious mentality, I would still take my shotgun and stand beside the younger set...and lay down my life for this nation which I have fought to help educate.  Just a rough paraphrase...but...'no greater love hath man than he would lay down his life for his friends'.  I have pledged my allegiance on many different levels to this greatest of human experiments.

[Warph]

Francis Bellamy (1855 - 1931), a Baptist minister, wrote the original Pledge in August 1892. He was a Christian Socialist. In his Pledge, he is expressing the ideas of his first cousin, Edward Bellamy, author of the American socialist utopian novels, Looking Backward (1888) and Equality (1897).

Francis Bellamy in his sermons and lectures and Edward Bellamy in his novels and articles described in detail how the middle class could create a planned economy with political, social and economic equality for all. The government would run a peace time economy similar to our present military industrial complex.

The Pledge was published in the September 8th issue of The Youth's Companion, the leading family magazine and the Reader's Digest of its day. Its owner and editor, Daniel Ford, had hired Francis in 1891 as his assistant when Francis was pressured into leaving his baptist church in Boston because of his socialist sermons. As a member of his congregation, Ford had enjoyed Francis's sermons. Ford later founded the liberal and often controversial Ford Hall Forum, located in downtown Boston.

In 1892 Francis Bellamy was also a chairman of a committee of state superintendents of education in the National Education Association. As its chairman, he prepared the program for the public schools' quadricentennial celebration for Columbus Day in 1892. He structured this public school program around a flag raising ceremony and a flag salute - his 'Pledge of Allegiance.'

His original Pledge read as follows: 'I pledge allegiance to my Flag and (to*) the Republic for which it stands, one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.' He considered placing the word, 'equality,' in his Pledge, but knew that the state superintendents of education on his committee were against equality for women and African Americans. [ * 'to' added in October, 1892. ]

Dr. Mortimer Adler, American philosopher and last living founder of the Great Books program at Saint John's College, has analyzed these ideas in his book, The Six Great Ideas. He argues that the three great ideas of the American political tradition are 'equality, liberty and justice for all.' 'Justice' mediates between the often conflicting goals of 'liberty' and 'equality.'

In 1923 and 1924 the National Flag Conference, under the 'leadership of the American Legion and the Daughters of the American Revolution, changed the Pledge's words, 'my Flag,' to 'the Flag of the United States of America.' Bellamy disliked this change, but his protest was ignored.

In 1954, Congress after a campaign by the Knights of Columbus, added the words, 'under God,' to the Pledge. The Pledge was now both a patriotic oath and a public prayer.

Bellamy's granddaughter said he also would have resented this second change. He had been pressured into leaving his church in 1891 because of his socialist sermons. In his retirement in Florida, he stopped attending church because he disliked the racial bigotry he found there.

What follows is Bellamy's own account of some of the thoughts that went through his mind in August, 1892, as he picked the words of his Pledge:

"It began as an intensive communing with salient points of our national history, from the Declaration of Independence onwards; with the makings of the Constitution...with the meaning of the Civil War; with the aspiration of the people...

The true reason for allegiance to the Flag is the 'republic for which it stands.' ...And what does that vast thing, the Republic mean? It is the concise political word for the Nation - the One Nation which the Civil War was fought to prove. To make that One Nation idea clear, we must specify that it is indivisible, as Webster and Lincoln used to repeat in their great speeches. And its future?

Just here arose the temptation of the historic slogan of the French Revolution which meant so much to Jefferson and his friends, 'Liberty, equality, fraternity.' No, that would be too fanciful, too many thousands of years off in realization. But we as a nation do stand square on the doctrine of liberty and justice for all..."

If the Pledge's historical pattern repeats, its words will be modified during this decade. Below are two possible changes.

Some prolife advocates recite the following slightly revised Pledge: 'I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all, born and unborn.'

A few liberals recite a slightly revised version of Bellamy's original Pledge: 'I pledge allegiance to my Flag, and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation, indivisible, with equality, liberty and justice for all.'
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Anyone can purchase a U.S. Flag that has flown over the United States Capitol building in Washington D.C. This can be accomplished writing a letter to your Senator with your request. Their address can be obtained by calling your local Public Library and asking for it or use the Senators of the 110th Congress web site to locate contact information for your Senator.

You may request that your flag be flown on a certain date such as a birthday or anniversary. Be sure to mail in your request at least 4 weeks prior to the date you have selected. Your flag will be mailed to you and arrive 3-4 weeks after the date you have specified (Since September 11th, 2001 it may take longer to receive your flag). Enclosed with your flag will be a Certificate from The Architect Of The Capitol certifying that your flag was flown as requested. If you mention in your letter that this flag is for any specific occasion, that information will be included on the certificate.

Flag order information is typically found under "Constituent Services"  http://brownback.senate.gov/

[flo]

Red Skelton was a true comedian and a true American.  He was able to make people laugh and he did it without any vulgar language, without making fun of any race of people, without making fun of other people, period.  He had so many different characters and loved them all.  People loved that man called "Red Skelton" . . . he was entertainment and what entertainment  should still be . . ., but sadly in so many cases, is not.