The people of the United States of America have for many years pledged allegiance to the flag of the United States of America. This pledge reads as such, on this day January 26th 2017;
"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."
If all things were in actual fact fair, honest and equal, for all American citizens, then a similar pledge of allegiance would probably read as such;
"I pledge allegiance to The United States of America, one nation, standing together, indivisible, with liberty, equality and justice for all.
This should probably come with the preface that "all" means just that. ALL inclusive; regardless of race, color, sexual orientation, gender, faith, and political leanings.
Oddly enough, those that share a more liberal view of things pretty much grasp this already.
The conservatives are yet to figure out what "allegiance" means....
In late November of 2016, after a few well publicized cases of flag burning in the United States of America during the 2016 federal elections, Donald Trump Tweeted that "Nobody should be allowed to burn the American flag. If they do there must be consequences-perhaps loss of citizenship or year in jail"
Unfortunately for Trump, the Supreme Court of the United States of America has twice affirmed the right to desecrate the US flag as a form of free speech. Firstly in 1989 and again a year later in 1990.
Musician and general badass Henry Rollins investigated in depth a number of things concerning "the flag" for his History Channel show "Ten things you didn't know about" just a few years prior to this particular Trump bullshit outburst, and many people (Americans and others) were already very aware of the legality of setting alight the Star Spangled Banner...but it seems that Trump missed the "flag" episode of this very informative and educational show.
Pledging allegiance to the flag in the United States of America was officially recognized by Congress in an Act approved on June 22, 1942.
However the pledge was first published forty years prior in Boston, MA, in celebration of the 400th anniversary of Columbus "discovering" America.
Originally using the words "my flag" instead of "the flag of the United States of America" the change was thought to prevent ambiguity among foreign born nationals, who were often presumed to be thinking of their native flag while reciting the pledge. Racist leanings? Well, the change certainly wasn't put there for the white conservative christian men (who's ancestors incidentally, were not native to North America) already steadfastly attempting to maintain their power (over the very same North America that they, and their families immigrated to) using those exact conservative christian leanings.
On Jun 14th,1954 President Eisenhower had Congress add the phrase "under God" stating that "in this way we are reaffirming the transcendence of religious faith in America's heritage and future; in this way we shall constantly strengthen those spiritual weapons which forever will be our country's most powerful resource in peace and war"
Not that it wasn't blatantly obvious already, but right there is where you can actually visualize hypocrisy, bigotry, racism and cherry picking.
Eisenhower was absolutely obvious in assuming that the entire population of the US should not only be religious, but that they lived only by the teachings of the bible, following only one "god"...the one heralded the white male christian right wing.
How then could there be "Liberty and justice for all"? The answer is short and not quite as sweet.. "There cannot be liberty and justice for all"
Right there with that action Eisenhower negated the beliefs of anyone that didn't tow the religious right wing line.
Not even five years after this action by Eisenhower's Congress, immigration to the US by peoples from Europe decreased, and immigration by peoples from Asia and Latin America increased greatly. Now it should be fairly obvious to anyone that many of those now arriving on the shores of "the land of the free" would be almost certain to have alternate beliefs and faiths. But no. It would appear this change in the origins of those who chose migration has in no way since seemed to persuade the Cis White Misogynist Christian Republicans, that they are out of touch... NOOO siree. Quite the opposite. They ABSOLUTELY refuse to see anything other than what exists in their tiny blinkered god bothering heads, unless of course their bigotry is not helping them to get rich or climb the corporate ladder at some point, in which case they cherry pick bible phrases and the words of others in order to tweak the truth of their immoral bullshit. They also spew what are now widely known as "Alternate facts" whenever they see fit. Previously these were acknowledged as out and out lies.
That said, there is a decline in recent years in the number of those associated with the Moral Majority and they are fast becoming the Moral Minority. Either way their "morals" have always been questionable.
Just the fact that the pledge contains the words "under god" and "with liberty and justice for all" in the same paragraph offers absolute proof that here in modern western society in 2017 there is no "liberty and justice for all" and especially not in Trumps America.
If you are a follower of any other religion than Christian, and although Donald Trump himself is quite obviously not a church going or moral man, you are akin to shit on a shoe...Just ask Mike Pence.
If you are of any other gender than "male" or "female", and this means those genders must have been assigned to you at birth, you are considered at this point in time by the majority of your Republican federal government; a persona non grata. If you are gay, bisexual, gender non conforming, transgender, native american, black, mexican, muslim, jewish, immigrant or descendant thereof.... if you are a woman with aspirations of well paid jobs, a lucrative career, with religious beliefs other than christianity, or someone who is in need of an abortion, contraceptives and other sexual health care....you are in the land of the "free" sure. But the reality of it is that you don't have nearly the same levels of "liberty" and nor will you be considered for anything close to the same levels of justice that republican white christian men have, because in their eyes you are inferior, and they are calling all the shots right now, and they decide who will get what levels of freedoms, liberties, justices and considerations.
If you are reading this you are probably not a hypocritical, misogynistic, lying, racist, bigot who buys their way in and adds a drop of bullying for good measure. It's likely you are also not a cis, white, male, christian, republican.
That being said, now you and your freedoms count for shit and so does pledging your allegiance to a fucking flag.
#womensmarch
#NotmyPresident
#buildbridgesnotwalls
Please note that at no time did I refer to Donald Trump by the title given to him at his inauguration as I feel it would be insulting to the majority of good people who will read this.
KG January 26 January 2017
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