A New Pledge of Allegiance
Filed Under Commentary | Posted on July 17, 2007
Surya Das just posted his Patriotic Pledge over at surya.org. It starts out:
I Pledge Allegiance
To this World Country,
To earth and sea and air, cherishing
All creatures, known and unknown,
seen and unseen,And to the United State of America
And all the republicans, democrats, homeless,
And melting-pot others
For which it stands
I kinda like it. I also kinda like (and amazingly enough still more or less remember) a modified pledge published in poster form by Mad Magazine a hundred years or so ago when I was 11 or 12 years old. It went something like:
I will pledge allegiance to the flag
Of the United States of America
When it is one nation, under God,
Indivisible, with Liberty and Justice for all
Including [racial epithet], [racial epithet], [racial epithet],
[racial epithet], [racial epithet], [racial epithet], [etc.]
[Someone else remembers it, too.]
It was a cool poster designed as a flag, with the words of the pledge forming the stripes. You had to look closely to see that it wasn’t just a stylized American flag. The racial epithets were satirical (obviously, I hope but never assume.)
It does sadly seem that the realization of the ideals of an indivisible nation with liberty and justice for all is getting further away instead of closer. Maybe it is time to replace our old Pledge of Allegiance (we can save the argument over “under God” for later) with either a more hopeful pledge, like Surya Das’, or a more realistic pledge, like Mad’s.
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