im 20 for reference. ever since i was a kid, up until hs, we were forced every morning to stand, look at the flag and hold our hearts and say:
“I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one Nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all”
i didnt stand a single time because i disagreed with being forced, and i was berated by the teacher in front of everyone, and he threatened to kick me out of class if i ever did it again. i was about 11-12 then, it was 2015.
That’s actually relatively recent, which is way, given the meter of the poem, it feels a little shoe-horned in. It was.
I wanna say it was in the 60s or so? Essentially as a way to promote a devout Christian image of America to contrast against the godless Soviets.
The pledge was written, by a minister in 1891 without the “under God” part. It was added by Congress in 1954 in the midst of Macarthyism and the Red Scare. In 2002 an appeals court said that forcing public school students to recite it was went against the separation of Church and State, and it was but stayed. The Supreme Court overturned that in 2004, but I think a lot of schools may have dropped it then.