Dear Friends:
I remember my first grade days in a two-room schoolhouse in New
Berlin when the area was still more pasture than parking lot. Every
morning, school started with all of us standing at attention next
to our desks, right hands over our hearts, reciting the Pledge of
Allegiance. I suspect most of us then knew little about the significance
of either our flag or the words we spoke.
Hopefully, in the years since out first days in school, we all have
developed an appreciation for Old Glory that reflects what its stars
and stripes mean to us. President Calvin Coolidge powerfully described
that affection when he said,
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"We identify the flag with almost everything we hold dear
on earth. It represents our peace and security, our civil and
political liberty, our freedom of religious worship, our family,
our friends, our home. We see it in the great multitude of blessings,
of rights and privileges that make up our country."
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Francis Bellamy, a Baptist minister in Boston, wrote the original
Pledge of Allegiance in 1892 as part of a school flag-raising ceremony
to mark the 400th anniversary of Columbus's arrival in America.
The most significant change in the pledge was the addition of the
words, "under God" by an act of Congress in 1954.
Earlier this year, many of us were shocked by the prospect that
the words one nation, "under God" should not be part of
our Pledge according to a federal appellate court decision. President
Bush stated in response to the court ruling, "The declaration
of God in the Pledge of Allegiance doesn't violate rights. As a
matter of fact, it's a confirmation of the fact that we received
our rights from God, as proclaimed in our Declaration of Independence.
(No one expects the ruling to stand.)
Words spoken by President Cleveland more than 100 years ago describe
well the traditions and history of America that President Bush was
referring to and which we celebrate this month. Cleveland said,
"The American people should every day remember with praise
and thanksgiving the divine goodness and mercy which have followed
them since their beginning as a nation." In a few days, we
will gather around a dinner table or in a place of worship to give
thanks on our national day of Thanksgiving. We should do well to
give thanks that we are "one nation under God" because,
as the psalmist reminds us, "Blessed is the nation whose God
is the Lord." We at The Law Offices of Mark S. Knutson hope
this Thanksgiving greeting will encourage our friends to remember
every day, with praise and thanksgiving, the blessings that out
flag embodies. |
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