Not Dirty, Not a Secret, and True

In doing a little work on my book "The Michele and Sarah-Pedia: History Made Right" I found an interesting piece of information that I know others will try to deny and possibly revise in attempts to try to control the possession American history. In researching the Pledge of Allegiance I found the story of the man who originally penned the oath in 1892, Francis Bellamy. The story behind the creation of the Pledge lacks the same sizzle as the story surrounding another Francis who wrote our National Anthem. Francis Scott Key wrote the Star-Spangled Banner while watching the Battle of Baltimore during the War of 1812 from aboard a British ship where he was securing the release of a friend. Francis Bellamy wrote the pledge for flag raising ceremonies at school assemblies commemorating the 400th anniversary of Columbus' arrival in the Caribbean. 


Bellamy had been part of a successful campaign to sell American flags to schools. As a promotion for the campaign he devised the Columbus tribute for which he wrote the original Pledge of Allegiance as follows:
I pledge allegiance to my Flag and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.


How Bellamy ended up becoming the Johnny Appleseed of American flags is where the story gets sexy. Bellamy had been a Baptist minister in Boston and a self-described Christian Socialist which is exactly what it sounds like. Bellamy believed that Socialism was at the heart of the teachings of Christ. This was just the kind of thinking that got his congregation to run him out. Bellamy then settled into the job at The Youth's Companion, the magazine responsible for the flag selling campaign. 


Those who exceedingly use "socialist" and "socialism" as pejorative terms today will not readily accept this account as truth.To acknowledge this fact as true would mean that they had been complicit with a socialist plot each time they repeated the Pledge. Either that or they will have to admit to having been duped by a red. So it would just be easier for them to dismiss this little nugget as left-wing propaganda.


That is where I believe we are today. It is the point of my book. There is a side in the political debate that creates their own facts which support how they want to feel instead of accepting actual facts for what they are. In other words, people are being willfully delusional. It is frustrating because you can't argue with crazy. I would love to posit that theoretically, this pathological form of self-esteem preservation is isolating, but that is not always true. Fake facts can infect the minds of less nefarious people as we saw with the flap over Obama's birth certificate.  


A big part of me was gleeful at finding out about Francis Bellamy. I am happy at anything that challenges the fairy tale orthodoxy about this country that gets spewed out. While the kindergarten version of America is easier to comprehend, America is a far more interesting place than that. I love the idea that a Christian Socialist who obviously loved his country came up with our national oath. I also love the fact that it will cause some inner conflict with some people even if they don't freely admit it.