There is even more to this pledge of allegiance thing. I have some special experience with pledging that most Americans do not have.

I have never been to a public school, my first experience with school was in a Baptist Christian School, called Accelerated Christian Education, or ACE. It’s now known as School of Tomorrow.

Anyway, the designer of this curriculum, Dr. Howard, was nothing if not patriotic. His prescription for model ACE schools was uniforms. Of course, his recommendation was red white and blue uniforms. Girl wore skirts and boys wore ties. The ties were a lovely blue background, with a repeating pattern on them.

The emblem of this pattern was extremely symbolic. There was an open Bible, with the American flag and the Christian flag making an X over it. Then, an American Eagle stood above these crossed flags, in the middle.

Being a girl, I did not have to wear this tie.

BUT! Pledging to the American flag was a required part of our daily routine. But in this highly regimented, quasi-militaristic environment, one pledge was not enough.

Did you forget that Christian flag?

There was a pledge to IT, to. Here it is:

I pledge allegiance to the Christian Flag and to the Savior for whose Kingdom it stands. One Savior, crucified, risen, and coming again with life and liberty to all who believe.

Pretty neat, huh? We got to say that one, too.

BUT THAT’S NOT ALL! There was another pledge, to the Bible. Here it is:

I pledge allegiance to the Bible, God’s Holy Word, I will make it a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path and will hide its words in my heart that I might not sin against God.

I don’t remember that my school ever said that one. But I was aware of it. The REALLY radical schools would say it. When we went to events that included all the Christian schools in the area, sometimes that pledge would come up. Even at the time, I thought it was silly. Perhaps because the bible is not a flag, and what were they trying to prove, anyway? Who among us DIDN”T think the Bible was important?

Well, the ACE curriculum fell from popular favor. That is, it fell in favor among the small slice of Americans who might have found it favorable. We moved on to other, less rigid curricula. Dr. Howard had to start selling his School of Tomorrow door to door. He translated it badly into Spanish, and sold it to Mexico.

But then, it 1990, the Iron Curtain Fell! Long Live the Christian Flag! The Russian were buying into ACE! He managed to sell his program in Russia.

And then, as a 19-year-old, I was in the outer reaches of nowhere, so nowhere it wasn’t even as accessible as Siberia, teaching the little no-longer-communist children about the pledge of allegiance.

They had a new flag. The old sickle and hammer had been taken down for a more abstract tri-color beastie. In fact, we saw it fly for the first time, the day we entered the capital of the region, Yakutsk: January 1st, 1992.

Well, we were there to instruct this school in the proper implementation of the program. And the first thing they were supposed to do every morning was pledge.

They didn’t have a pledge to the new flag. I think they may have had something similar for the old flag, but these poor people were not really into sloganeering and patriotism. Communism had fallen apart and people were wondering how much longer they would have food.

At the point in time we arrived, all of the government workers (and that was pretty much everybody) had not been paid for 5 months.

People were not feeling patriotic. Perhaps that is why my father insisted on creating a new pledge of allegiance for the new flag. More likely, he was oblivious to their state of mind; we were all extremely disoriented. Remember, which of us in America knew anything about life in Russia? For all we knew, this was just how they did things.

So dad wrote a new pledge of allegiance stealing broadly from the American pledge. Well, that’s what the pledge to the Christian flag and the pledge to the bible did, so he was working in an established literary tradition.

It wasn’t until he gave it to the Russian teacher to be translated that I thought about it. Poor Olga was befuddled by the word “allegiance.” What does it mean?

We all laughed. “The kids in America don’t know what it means either! It’s a standing joke, how kids misunderstand the pledge…I led the pigeons to the flag…Stuff like that.”

Think about that. Is that okay? Kids don’t even know what they are saying!

We explained that it meant loyalty, etc. She managed to come up with a decent translation.

So that’s how the little darlings began their days, standing straight, with their right hands pressed to their left breast, reciting to a tri-color poster, which was the best we could do for a flag.

It occurred to me then, that Russians were familiar with these kinds of things. Wouldn’t the Young Pioneers, with their red kerchiefs, have had a whole slew of these kinds of patriotic rituals?

At that point in time, the Young Pioneers had no money to do anything, so kids were roaming the streets, getting drunk and beating each other up. But I didn’t know that until later.

But I thought, Is this the American way that we are supposed to be bringing to the Russians? This rigidity and conformity? Haven’t they had enough of being told what to think and how to act? It made me very uncomfortable.

I joked about finding ties that had the Russian flag on it instead of the American flag, and having the kids wear those. I’m not sure that my family thought it was funny.

Eventually, I had to leave the schools. I just didn’t feel right about teaching that curriculum. I had been there for a year and a half, and my family was staying on. But I could not in good conscience continue to teach rhetoric and rote memorization. I thought America meant something else.

That’s most of my memory-experience I bring to this Pledge of Allegiance issue.

Silly Blogger! I posted this yesterday, but it didn’t quite go up. You’ll all see it a day late.

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It’s American Independence day! Happy Fourth of July!

There is a big conflict going on right now about the pledge of allegiance. I have some thoughts on the matter.

I guess the big controversy in place right now is about the phrase “Under God.” Should thus phrase be included in the pledge of allegiance, which many schools require their students to recite?

This controversy reminds me of the controversy about another little phrase: “and the Son.”

That little phrase was much more important and had much more lasting consequences. It was an addition that some 9th and 10th century christens wanted to add to the Nicene Creed, as part of the definition of the Trinity. It became one of the major causes for the split in the Christian church that resulted in the Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church.

Small phrases can have a big impact.

HOWEVER, the phrase “under God” in my opinion does not belong in a required pledge of allegiance. The protection of religious freedom should preserve the rights of school children. They should not be forced into a profession of faith, whether it is their own or not.

This is not the opinion of everyone. Some people feel very strongly that the phrase should be included in the pledge.

I actually have a different opinion altogether than any of the ones I’m hearing on the news.

I think that the ritual of pledging allegiance is ridiculous and unhealthy. The pledge is a recent phenomenon, only being composed in 1892. The way it is treated now, you would think that Washington spoke it ex cathedra while crossing the Delaware. But no. It was written by a Christian socialist for a youth magazine.

It was taken up and pushed in the 20’s by the American Legion.

The entire ritual of saying the pledge seems odd. We have all been raised on it, so maybe it’s hard for some of you to understand what I mean, but think about it.

All these little children assume a military pose and recite in unison a slogan and a promise of loyalty to America.

What purpose does this ritual serve? Is it meant to promote good citizenship and civic-mindedness?

If so, surely there is a better and more effective way to accomplish that goal. I do not believe that encouraging lock-step conformity and equating lemming-like behavior with patriotism for schoolchildren is the best method of teaching civic pride.

Let us instead focus on what true patriotism means. I wonder how many of the people who feel that surge of pride when their right hand is clapped over their heart vote regularly.

In the aftermath of September 11th, there have been a lot of changes. President W. Bush created a position for Secretary of Homeland Security, and has taken some measures to take control of the situation.

I, like the whole world, am concerned about stopping further attacks and about finding the people who perpetrated the original attack.

but I am also nervous about what “Homeland Security” means. What freedoms will I have to sacrifice?

There are a lot of people who feel that W. Bush has gone too far. Some prominent activists and intellectuals got together to make a statement about it.

They call it “Not in Our Name.”

I respect many of the people who have signed this document; people such as Gloria Steinem, Edward Said and others have done things that I admire. I would be inclined to listen carefully to what they have to say.

HOWEVER!

This document is filled with unsubstantiated claims and does not point to any action to resolve the problems.

Why would this group not be careful to substantiate claims about the abuses of authority in America? If it is a true accusation, it should be incredibly simple to include hard facts about one or two cases, to give good proof.

And if there is a problem, that they would like to bring to the attention of the American people, then they should either propose a solution or send out a call asking others for a solution. There is no way to treat the problem, nothing suggested in the wording of this document to give the reader a place to go. If there is a wrong being committed, by all means, let us band together to right it!

But no such path is suggested.

I do not know, after reading their complaint, whether it is valid or not.

I say, Shame on you! Get your facts straight!

You cannot be an activist if you have no plan of action.

Today was the longest day of the year: the summer solstice. It seems like most people remember the solstice the day after it happens, or a week before it happens. Some of them might think, “I should do something to celebrate the first day of summer.” Then the day actually rolls around, and they forget or they find themselves without any ideas of how to celebrate this significant day.

I used to be one of those people. When I stopped to think about it, solstices are a really important occasion. They are an incredibly sincere and sensible holiday. They do not celebrate a religion I don’t agree with, or perpetuate an incorrect and damaging revision of history.

Solstices mark an incontrovertible fact that the earth has reached an apex. In summer, the days stop getting longer and start becoming shorter. Seasons come and go, and change is inevitable.

The earth measures it’s time on a longer scale than people do. Maybe summer solstice is like noon on the earth’s watch.

You can’t argue with solstice. It is bigger than you. Every person from every civilization over the whole history of time has recognized the solstice; that is awesome.

Maybe some of them were like us, thinking, “This is an important day. I ought to celebrate it”

The Egyptians made pyramids that marked the solstice season, capturing the special angle of light that happens only on that day. Stonehenge in Britain and NewGrange in Ireland mark the special days.

Perhaps these lasting and impressive structures were the product of those people decided to do something to mark the day.

In my hometown, there is a solstice marker. Sunnyvale chose to put some municipal art on the corner near city hall. The artist decided to create a marker that would commemorate the summer and winter solstices.

My friend and her niece decided to come with me and watch the sun rise. The lawn was beautiful, and the sky was dark. Unfortunately, the clouds were so thick that we did not get to see the light phenomenon.

Too bad. Maybe the winter solstice will be more spectacular. The niece swore she would be back to see it in the winter.

One of the other things I had an opportunity to see while in SoCal this last weekend was the symptoms of THE INDUSTRY.

Here is Silicon Valley, THE INDUSTRY is high tech. Poor high tech. But in the LA area, THE INDUSTRY is entertainment. I met a screenwriter. He was quite a nice guy. Perhaps he had more personality than the rest of the world knew how to deal with, but I quite enjoyed talking with him.

I asked him about the format of screenplay writing. He grew even more animated, and gave me a book called “Screenplay” all about how to write a script.

As it turns out, there is pretty much only one way to organize the events in a movie. In the first thirty minutes, you have to introduce all the major characters, and create a dilemma for the characters to work on. Then the next 60 minutes is everyone working on the dilemma, and then creates a second plot twist or problem. The last 30 minutes resolves and wraps up the story.

Pretty much, that’s it. Almost all the movies in the world, and they all have the same structure.

I find that astounding. As I think about it, I can recognize the pattern in movies I’ve seen.

Perhaps I should be disgusted that “the masses” are so easily satisfied, so easily entertained. Maybe if I were feeling more cynical, I would feel that way.

But I don’t. I am amazed and in awe of the creative power humans possess. I have often been astounded, as I play my piano, how the same notes, and the same structures in music can create such fabulous variety. I love all the songs I play, and yet they are so similar. They all have the same kinds of chords and patterns in their structure.

So movies, which seem as different as snowflakes, can follow the same pattern. But that structure gives a container to the creative minds. A writer or a director can know where to place the pieces and give thousands, millions of people a scary, hilarious, or profound experience.

For the last year or so, I have been interested in the causes and effects of the First World War. Really, it seems to encapsulate so much of what went before and to set the stage for everything that came after.

The whole war seemed to be fought on poorly understood, or at least poorly tested, ideals. The Victorian English came to the battlefield with a great “sense of duty.” This duty had become the replacement for the faith they had lost (or cast off, depending on your point of view) during the 1800s.

The Germans, and I admit I am hazier on this point, seemed to fight the war based on their ideals of how the world should become. They felt themselves to be far advanced in the area of ideals and philosophies; they wanted to be the leaders of the new modern age.

So, my reading and studying of the previous eras seem to lead inevitably to the enactment of WWI.

But then the Second World War seems to arise inevitably out of the aftermath of the first war.

The modern age, the age of the flapper and Jazz, the age of disaffection and disillusionment rose out of the failure that WWI turned into. What was the point of the war? What was the point of all those who were killed?

And what was the point of all those that survived?

The loss of faith, then the loss of the sense of duty, which replaced the lost faith, left a tremendous void. What was left? Eat, drink, and be merry. Right?

Maybe. That was part of what World War I taught us, the taste left in people’s mouths.

As for WWII, for me, it has always been about the Holocaust. The terrifying nearness of the “almost’; the genocide attempt on the Jewish people is soul-chilling.

How could so many people have been involved in such wholesale murder? And not even the murders, but also the horrifying conditions of the concentration camps? How do people allow such suffering of fellow humans beings to occur without being aroused to compassion? How could this be?

So my concept of WWII has centered around the idea of “Never Again!” The message of that war was about resisting the kind of acquiescent evil illustrated by the Nazi atrocities.

But I was listening to a novel on tape, Mr. Sammler’s Planet by Saul Bellows. Sammler, the main character, has an opportunity to speak with a Punjabi Indian professor about his experiences as a Polish Jew during the war.

It occurred to me that other cultures might have a completely different image of the war. I know for certain that Chinese survivors of WWII have resentments towards the Japanese. I wondered what Indians would have thought about the war. What would be the general conception of WWII and its results in other countries than the US?

I suppose the idea is not terribly original, but it was original to me. I imagine that the interpretation of the results of WWII and how it affected each individual’s homeland would be very important for understanding the world climate of the 20th century.

I wish I could take a peek into the history books of different nations to know how other peoples saw the events.

I’m listening to NPR, my favorite radio station. Greg Palast is talking with Angie Coiro…
He’s an investigative reporter.

I should say, I hate the news. I have occasionally thought I would be a great journalist, because I love to write, and I am incredibly nosy. But then I think, “I hate the news. I can’t stand to read it or to watch it”

I Do hate the news. Where do I begin?
It saddens me tremendously to hear stories of the kidnapped children. And these stories are covered daily. Every local news program interviews the parents, the boyfriend of the mother, crying and wailing. I usually feel like crying and wailing too.

Then you discover that it was one of THEM, usually the boyfriend, who has RAPED AND KILLED THE CHILD!

Great.

You know, if I could do something about it, I would. But most of the time, it’s just depressing.

Then, should there actually be a story I want to know about, I never hear enough. They tell me about 5 seconds of information. What?! WHAT?!?! Say that again! Tell me more!

But no. We are on to the next missing child, or shoplifting celebrity.

I have almost no interest in celebrities. I don’t care about Robert Downey Jr. or Britney Spears. I don’t want to know about P Diddy and J-Lo.

I want to know more about those economic statistics. Or that foreign negotiation. I’d like to know more about campaign scandals.

But They never tell you enough. And they never finish the story. Should I happen upon a story that interests me, I want to read more. I’ll go on the Internet and find out more

Why do the news people assume I am stupid and only want the 15 seconds of information they give me? I want to know where I can get more. I think that Americans deserve more respect. And I do believe we are being manipulated by people who think they can get away with it.

Greg Palast, who I had never heard of before today, apparently has written a book called The Best Democracy Money Can Buy: An Investigative Reporter Exposes the Truth about Globalization, Corporate Cons, and High Finance Fraudsters

I may just have to check it out. He has an interesting story.

I’m tired of being jerked around by the news. I wouldn’t mind having some of these stories be brought to my attention a little bit sooner.