zabouti |||

The Pledge of Allegiance

I posted this comment on FB Sept 2, 2020:

I went to elementary school in the early 50s. Every Monday, all the students would gather in the yard (or basement in poor weather) to say the Pledge and hear some words from the principal. The Pledge was never explained to me and I never bothered to ask why we talking to a flag, something that just didn’t (and doesn’t) make much sense to me.

I distinctly remember being told one day that the words under God” had been added to the Pledge, but that we were free not to say them!

I have recited the Pledge many times since but I always leave a silence in there, a silence that reminds me that I’m an American who still has some freedom.

While the Pledge no doubt truly inspires many fellow citizens, I’m afraid that having been compelled to say it as a child involuntarily brings to mind one of the most frightening scenes on film, this scene from Cabaret.

So hats off to the Board for not requiring that the Pledge be recited for each meeting.

Up next EVIL GENIUSES: YABIHTR (Yet Another Book I Have To Read) On the cover of today’s New York Times Book Review is a review of EVIL GENIUSES: The Unmaking of America: A Recent History By Kurt Andersen that has O Nosso Senhor do Bonfim worked for me! A miracle: O Senhor do Bonfim worked for me! Yesterday, when Ginette tied the ribbon around my wrist, my wish was to still be alive when the ribbon
Latest posts Vocabulary lesson Iris and I had an interesting discussion with Google Bard this morning. Discussion on the Pomona College class of 1964 listserv I’m illiterate Elon Musk I love photographing the artists at Wildacres Eating a Mouse It Really is a Fascist Flag (at least to some Americans) I love the New York Times Metropolitan Diary Watching The Ten Commandments in Gafsa, Tunisia, in the sixtes I wanna be like these guys when I’m their age! The insignificance of photography Enough photos from our trip to Japan MoveOn wants to amend the Constitution? Google Sheet Number Formatting Summer Brake Romantic technologies and ideologies PITY THE NATION Basho’s poem, Even in Kyoto War in Ukraine - an explanation Timothy Snyder’s History of Ukraine Fake Email Senders More on language learning Effect and Cause Soros is my Co-Pilot Note à une chère amie Arnold Schwarzenegger Why Purim upsets me I was a Programmer Who Swore Constantly I perceive new things as my nerves slow down