Collected Quotes
The Pledge of Allegiance
March 1, 2003
| We,Too, Have a Job to Do, Norman Rockwell. www.keystonebsa.org | Freedom of Speech, Norman Rockwell. ©1943 SEPS, Curtis Publishing. www.nrm.org |
| We,Too, Have a Job to Do, Norman Rockwell. www.keystonebsa.org | Freedom of Speech, Norman Rockwell. ©1943 SEPS, Curtis Publishing. www.nrm.org |
My great-grandfather Francis Bellamy wrote the Pledge of Allegiance in 1892. A deeply religious man, he was also a strict believer in the separation of church and state. A Pledge of Allegiance that does not include God invites the participation of more Americans.
25
Sally Wright (July 7, 2002)
Bush talks about faith-based initiatives, but we are not a country of one faith.
42
Wendy Kaminer (August 24, 2002)
Northern Sun Merchandising, Minneapolis, MN
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.
29
Dr. John W. Baer (1992)
No official, high or petty, can prescribe what shall be orthodox in politics, nationalism, religion, or other matters of opinion.
30
U.S. Supreme Court Justice Robert Jackson, in West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette, striking down a requirement that school children salute the flag (1943)
One of the things that the flag stands for, the Court said that day, was the right not to salute it.
35
Ira Glasser (1991). The Supreme Court decision was made in the middle of this country's most terrible war.
To believe that patriotism will not flourish if patriotic ceremonies are voluntary and spontaneous instead of a compulsory routine is to make an unflattering estimate of the appeal of our institutions to free minds.
30
Justice Robert Jackson, West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette (1943)
| Iwo Jima Flag Raising, Joe Rosenthal, 2/23/45. ©1945 Associated Press. www.iwojima.com | World Trade Center Flag Raising, Thomas E. Franklin, 9/11/01. ©2001 The Record (Bergen County, NJ). www.groundzerospirit.org |
I would not take my patriotism from my neighbor or from Congress. I should teach the children in the schools that there are certain ideals, and one of them is that all men are created free and equal.
34
Mark Twain, speaking against Charles R. Skinner's Manual of Patriotism for Use in the Public Schools of the State of New York (March 16, 1901). Skinner was New York State Superintendent of Public Instruction.
I never meant this to be a public statement. I did it for my own self-respect and conscience. A lot of people blindly stand up and salute the flag, but I feel that blindly facing the flag hurts more people.
147
Toni Smith, Manhattanville College sociology major and basketball player (February 25, 2003). Smith has been turning her back to the American flag during the pregame national anthem.
©2003
ESPN
Not respecting the flag is disrespecting your country and all the people who died for it. Especially now, when our soldiers are getting ready to go to war again.
147
Kirt Sloan, spectator (February 25, 2003)
Who's the real red-blooded American in that picture, the athletic girl with a questioning mind and big heart who put her hands on her hips and stood there unafraid, or the old man running up to a young girl to try and bully her?
149
Ralph Wiley, ESPN (February 28, 2003). Jerry Kiley, a Vietnam veteran, ran onto the court with an American flag and confronted Smith.
The act of protest is inherently patriotic. If that is not the case, it is immaterial whether the military has fought and sacrificed for the First Amendment freedom to protest.
148
Michael Heilbronner, Portland, Oregon (February 26, 2003). See Ira Glasser, above.
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