My first problem with it is that it's a pledge of allegiance to a piece of cloth. WTF!!? I can see someone pledging allegiance to the country, it does at least make some sense, but what kind of maroon would pledge allegiance to a bit of cloth!?
Bellamy, being socialist and all, seems to have stuck his ideals of "liberty and justice for all" in there. Cool ideals, but ideals and $5 will get you a cup of coffee. There was no "liberty and justice for all" when the country was founded in 1776, and not much had changed over a hundred years later when Bellamy wrote this. "Liberty and justice", to the extent they existed at all, was for rich white men. If you were not a rich land owner, pfft! If you were not white, you didn't mean spit, unless you tried to get uppity. If you were a woman, you were breeding stock, nothing more.
Bellamy, even being Baptist, didn't stick his God into it. That only happened when most of the American government, and its people, were scared spitless of something they knew not the first thing about; "communism". And the greatest terror of THAT was because people thought "godless" and Communist were the same thing and both were vile. Now, more than 100 years after Bellamy, some rather trivial "progress" has been made, though the "rich landowner" bit is roaring back with a vengeance.
You won't ever get me to "pledge allegiance" to any piece of cloth, even the Rebel flag, which I like. Fuck a flag, all flags. My country does not want my allegiance either except as a silent, mindless cog in the Big Machine. You want me to have some respect, some allegiance, some enthusiastic support for my "republic"? Start implementing that "liberty and justice for all" bit. Let's not have all these millions of Americans homeless and hungry. Even the used up bits of cannon fodder soldiers that gave so much of their lives fighting people they didn't know to make very rich people they will never know, just so much richer.
Respect and support are things that must be earned. Fuck JFK and his "ask not what your country can do for you." That's what it's friggin' THERE for, to meet the needs of its citizens. Remember this:?
"We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America."
I guess you could say this Preamble has been a rousing success, when you remember that the "ourselves and our Posterity" meant rich white men. How many women were at these various meetings and conventions? How many Mexicans? How many Indians? How many black people? Whatever happened to "general Welfare"? Just words, various puffs of vibrating air, lost amid the universal animal lust for power. How could it ever be different as long as we remain animals?
In1830, there were 12,866,020 people in these United States, according to that year's census. Source. We only had about 22 or 23 states then. If you add another 1.5 million or so to the population number above, you get the number of unemployed Americans in 2009. Source. That was a jump of nearly 60% over 2008.
Yeah, here's MY Pledge of Allegiance...
I pledge allegiance to the void, from which I sprang; whose infinite black nothingness holds the closest thing to freedom that humans will ever know...er, not know.
Maybe we should all move to Europe...at least they have more interesting tunnels.
Y'all have a Glorious Fourth!
TRB
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