Some of us grew up reciting the Pledge of Allegiance in school every day. The words “one nation, indivisible” are a potent memory. Are those words history?
The thirteen colonies declared their independence from England on July 4, 1776. The Congress adopted the name “United States” on Sept. 9, 1776. In 1777, they designated June 14 as American Flag Day. The first 10 amendments to the U.S. Constitution were ratified in 1791.
It is surely probable that the writers of those amendments would have been stunned by the 1989 U.S. Supreme Court decision that declared burning the U.S. flag is freedom of speech protected by the First Amendment.
We haven’t always adhered to our indivisible pledge. We very nearly lost our indivisible and united status when our ancestors abandoned those concepts to engage in a brutal Civil War that still provides unsettled issues. But having survived that challenge, our country lived up to our ideals during two world wars and the Great Depression.
On our 245th flag day, we, again, have politicians promoting divisiveness, attempting to divide the country for political and personal gain. George Washington, our first President, said in his 1796 Farewell Address: “However [political parties] may now and then answer popular ends, they are likely in the course of time and things, to become potent engines, by which cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the power of the people and to usurp for themselves the reins of government, destroying afterwards the very engines which have lifted them to unjust dominion.”
One Nation Indivisible. I want to recite those words again and believe what I am saying.
Jack Stevenson is retired. He served two years in Vietnam as an infantry officer, retired from military service and worked three years as a U.S. Civil Service employee. He also worked in Egypt as an employee of the former Radio Corporation of America (RCA). Currently, he reads history, follows issues important to Americans and writes commentary for community newspapers.