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Pledge of AllegianceIn the United States, schoolchildren frequently recite the Pledge of Allegiance while saluting the flag.
In its present form, the words of the Pledge are:
The protocol followed when reciting the Pledge of Allegiance is straightforward. Uniformed military personnel are to face the flag and salute as they would to an officer. Civilians are to stand at attention and place their right hand over the heart. Civilian men (however, not women) are also to remove their hats and place them over their heart as well.
HistoryThe Pledge of Allegiance first appeared in 1892 in the popular children's magazine Youth's Companion, to celebrate, on October 12th of that year, the 400th anniversary of Columbus arriving in the Americas. It was written by Francis Bellamy, a socialist author and Baptist minister. Bellamy's original Pledge read as follows: I pledge allegiance to my Flag and the Republic for which it stands, one nation indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. It was seen by some as a call for national unity and wholeness after the divisive American Civil War. After a proclamation by President Benjamin Harrison, the Pledge was first used in public schools on October 12, 1892 during Columbus Day observances. The form adopted inserted the word "to" before "the Republic," a minor matter of grammar. In 1923 and 1924 the National Flag Conference called for the words my Flag to be changed to the Flag of the United States of America. The reason given was to ensure that immigrants knew to which flag reference was being made. The United States Congress officially recognized the Pledge on December 28, 1945. In 1954, after a campaign initiated by the Roman Catholic Knights of Columbus, Senator Homer Ferguson of Michigan sponsored a bill to amend the pledge to include the words under God, to distinguish the U.S. from the officially atheist Soviet Union, and to remove the appearance of flag and nation worship. The phrase "nation, under God" previously appeared in Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, and echoes the Declaration of Independence. On June 8, 1954, Congress adopted this change. Originally, the Pledge was often recited with the right hand extended in salute toward the flag. After this salute became identified with Nazism and Fascism in the 1940s, this was changed: today, the Pledge is said with hand over heart. On June 24, 1999 the Senate passed a resolution sponsored by Senator Bob Smith of New Hampshire to recite the Pledge before each day's session. The Pledge is also recited before many local city council meetings and school board meetings, as well as before some school functions. This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Pledge of Allegiance" and from http://www.white-on.com
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