Saturday, February 12, 2022

“I Started A Joke, Which Started The Whole World Crying…”

We had a substitute teacher in the last two (?) years of high school (off and in, various classes.) He was, he said, a Vietnam vet, seriously injured (no visible wounds, with replaced parts, partial internal organs, etc.) He was , you can figure now, a “character.” He was also quite earnest and outspoken. My point is the time he was leading a discussion on the Vietnam War (IIRC. Couldn’t have been Civil Rights; that would be too controversial. This was in the early ‘70’s). I presented the unpopular (i.e.,anti-war position), but declined to speak because I was in the distinct minority (and a coward, truth be told). I still remember him putting a meaty fist on my desk, looking down into my face, and telling me he fought a war so I could be free to speak my opinion, and he urged me to do so.

Nothing to do with reciting the pledge, but some of the stories reminded of that. It was high school when I stopped saying the pledge, because of the ruckus that roiled the campus my junior year, which I connected primarily to the rebel flag that was the symbol of the school. They had one just about the size of a football field that was unfurled for every game. It was decades later I realized that was the least of the causes of friction. But I lost all interest in flags as symbols for people to rally round: they were too easily used to set boundaries for who is in and who is out. They too easily become flashpoints for anger and division.

The Pledge of Allegiance began as an effort at internationalism. All paths to hell are paved with good intentions, even the worst intentions. “Under God” was added so Commies would burst into flames and expose themselves. Or something aimed at Commies.

Anyway, I stopped saying the pledge. I’d stand, but my hands stayed by my sides, I remained silent. I remember boring my friends with my explanations (they noticed). Otherwise, life went on.

It still does.  I still don't (pledge allegiance to the flag).  My worst experience was as a pastor, on "Scout Sunday." The service always opened with the flags being processed down the main aisle, followed by the Pledge of Allegiance.  I didn't raise my hand to my heart, I didn't say a word.  If anyone noticed, I never heard about it.  It was the Processional, I was already standing.

Anyway, the original Pledge was written by a socialist, for international use, to be a bond between people. Funny how liminal, and exclusionary, these things become.  It seems to be a human thing. But so is justice:

Now, what I want to suggest to you is that we should be very suspicious of this liturgy of justice because I believe it is simply a recital of mindless mantras.the way every politician is for justice for the middle class, etc. etc. etc. . .  And it occurred to me it's kind of ironic in the use of such mantras that the People who care most about the flag and the pledge of allegiance to the flag tend to be the People who are the least interested in liberty and justice for all. 

That's just an excerpt from a lecture by Walter Brueggeman reading the "enthronement" Psalms.  I mention that so you'll read the longer excerpt.  I quote it because it mentions the flag and the pledge of allegiance.  And I think Brueggeman's observation is correct:  the more loudly some insist on honoring the flag or keeping the pledge to it, the less they insist on liberty and justice for all.  They want it only for the people who act like they do.

Which is why I'd still, to this day, do away with the Pledge altogether, if it were left to me.
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