This week, the US celebrated its independence. And so it’s perhaps fitting to head into the weekend with John Wayne, an American icon, reciting and interpreting the Pledge of Allegiance. Long live the Duke…
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It would have been nice if he would have said it correctly. There is no comma (and thus no pause) between “one nation” and “under God”. Far too many people make that mistake.
does it really matter. I would rather hear someone say it with the pause whole heartedly where you know it means something to them, then just some one to recite it and mean nothing.
The reason that a pause is felt after “one nation” is because originally there was a comma after that. The words “under God” were inserted in 1954 during the Cold War to draw an ideological separation between us and the “godless communists”. Let’s not blame The Duke for the hysteria of that era.
That insertion seems to be the mistake – it says that unless you’re Judeo-Christian, you can’t be a patriot. It’s in conflict with the First Amendment and the spirit of “E Pluribus Unum” of our founding fathers.
I think we should all take a pause every time we get to that spot in the pledge to acknowledge the voices that aren’t being heard in our country. That would be the American thing to do.