The modern pledge of allegiance is a cover-up. The hand-over-the-heart
hides a horrid history. It hides the original gesture, which was very different.
The hand covers up what real Americans know in their hearts is a bizarre
ritual that glorifies big government.
The pledge of allegiance was the origin of the salute of the National
Socialist German Workers’ Party (Nazi Party). It is a brown stain
on American heritage. The original pledge of allegiance used a straight-arm
salute because Francis Bellamy was a self-proclaimed national socialist
who promoted “military socialism” (a Bellamy term). To promote militarism,
Bellamy started the pledge of allegiance with a military salute. The
military salute was held for the phrase “I pledge allegiance” and then the
right arm extended straight outward toward the flag for the rest of the
chant. Historic photographs are linked at http://rexcurry.net/pledge1.html
and at http://rexcurry.net/pledge_military.html
The first description of the pledge had the palm of the hand turned
upward for the straight-armed gesture. The gesture changed in
use, growing into the "Heil Hitler" appearance because of the military salute
(palm down) extended casually straight toward the flag.
James Bailey Upham suggested to Bellamy part of the gesture (the straight-arm
with the palm upward). Upham’s suggested gesture (palm up) was like
saying “Here is the flag.” It was because of Bellamy’s alteration (the
addition of the military salute) that the pledge evolved into the Nazi-style.
Upham was also familiar with Bellamy's "military socialism" dogma because
Edward Bellamy, cousin and cohort to Francis, had written of it in the international
bestseller "Looking Backward" in 1888, and both Bellamys had been openly
involved in the national socialism movement and the "Nationalist" magazine.
Edward Bellamy was a bitter West Point failure but he loved Prussian
militarism and the educational system. According to Tom Peyser
"On his deathbed, he wiled away the hours by arranging tin soldiers along
the folds of his coverlet." That would interest all who loathe the National
Socialist German Workers’ Party, because Prussia led to the formation of
the German empire, and after World War I, Prussia continued to exist as the
largest Land (state) within the Weimar Republic and under the National Socialist
German Workers’ Party. After World War II it was dissolved by decree
of the Allied Control Council in 1947.
Even with the palm turned upward, people would later see the relationship
to the National Socialist German Workers' Party and that is why the straight-arm
salute was disfavored in 1942, and the hand-over-the-heart was adopted.
(On June 22, 1942, the pledge was included in the U.S. Flag Code, but Congress
gave it the modern hand-over-the-heart gesture. There is probably one overriding
reason why Congress interfered: to make everyone drop the straight-arm salute,
which was becoming very embarassing and very revealing. The US had entered
WWII on December 7, 1941 against Japan after Pearl Harbor. On December 11,
1941 Germany and Italy declared war on the United States and the U.S. declared
war on Germany and Italy.)
It is interesting to note that Upham's father had operated a school
in New Hampshire that included Roman and Greek classics and Upham had attended
that school. It is not clear how this might have influenced
the “Roman salute” myth that eventually arose about the straight-armed salute.
Upham was the head of the premium department of the Youth’s Companion
Magazine and was also a junior partner in its firm, the Perry Mason Company
of Boston, which was owned by Daniel S. Ford, uncle-by-marriage to Upham.
Ford had supported churches where Francis Bellamy preached socialism.
Ford was attracted to socialism and was interested in the Social Gospel
which, to his friend Francis Bellamy, meant Christian Socialism. At
his death Ford bequeathed almost one million dollars to the Baptist Social
Union of Boston, and that money was used to build Ford Hall, the meeting
place of the Ford Hall Forum, which still exists. In leaving money
to the Forum, Ford said that the Social Union and the nation should foster
closer personal relations between Christian businessman and the workingman
because of the latter's "religious indifference, his feverish unrest and
his belief that businessmen and capital are his enemies.”
Before Bellamy worked for the Youth’s Companion, Upham had promoted
the use of the Flag in government schools. In 1891 and 1892, Upham
coordinated a national celebration of Columbus focused on government schools
and a flag ceremony with the as yet unwritten pledge. Upham wrote
many drafts of a pledge and asked for comments from the magazine’s staff.
He was never happy with his drafts and he asked Bellamy to take over.
The only well known flag salute at that time was Colonel Balch's salute,
written in 1889. That salute went as follows: "We give our heads and
our hearts to God and our country; one country, one language, one Flag."
During the speel, the youngsters would point at their heads, their heart
and then at the flag. Thus, Balch’s chant ended with a straight arm
pointing at the flag. Balch had first used his pledge on Flag Day, June
14th, in his free kindergarten for New York City's poor and immigrants where
he served as a principal. It seems to have become a daily salute in the classroom
for all of his students.
Bellamy and Upham wanted a better pledge.
When Bellamy finished writing the pledge in August, 1892, he showed
it to Upham. The pledge still did not have a salute. Upham came
to attention, snapped his heels together and chanted, "I pledge allegiance
to my flag," and he stretched out his right arm and hand with palm up while
he recited the rest of the pledge.
Later, the first program for the pledge stated: “At a signal from the
Principal the pupils, in ordered ranks, hands to the side, face the Flag.
Another signal is given; every pupil give the Flag the military salute -
right hand lifted, palm downward, to a line with the forehead and close to
it. Standing thus, all repeat together, slowly: "I pledge allegiance to my
Flag and the Republic for which it stands; one Nation, indivisible, with
Liberty and Justice for all." At the words, "to my Flag," the right hand
is extended gracefully, palm upward, towards the Flag, and remains in this
gesture till the end of the affirmation.; whereupon all hands immediately
drop to the side.
Because of Bellamy’s military socialism and his addition of the military
salute, the pledge’s salute evolved into the Nazi-style salute.
Government schools teach that the pledge was created to sell flags to
schools and Francis Bellamy is described as an advertising pioneer.
That is a whitewashed piece of the whole story. A better description
is that Bellamy was a propaganda pioneer, comparable to Leni Riefenstahl.
Germans learned bad American behavior via old films, via WWI, and via
the widespread use of the straight-arm salute by German-American groups
(including the German American Bund) in the USA, and from Germans who were
educated in the USA or resided in the USA, and vice versa. It led
to its adoption later by the National Socialist German Workers’ Party (Nazi
Party). http://rexcurry.net/pledgebund.html
Bellamy believed that government schools with pledges and flags were needed
to brainwash children to embrace nationalism, militarism, and socialism.
Bellamy wanted the government to takeover everything and impose the
military’s “efficiency,” as he said. It is the origin of the
modern military-socialist complex.
Bellamy wanted a flag over every school because he wanted to nationalize
and militarize everything, including all schools, and eliminate all of the
better alternatives. During Bellamy’s time the government was taking over
education.
Bellamy wanted government schools to ape the military. Government
schools were intended to create an “industrial army” (another Bellamy phrase,
and the word “army” was not metaphorical) and to help nationalize everything
else.
Because of the Bellamy way of thinking, government-schools
spread and they mandated segregation by law and taught racism as official
policy and did so even after the National Socialists were defeated, and
well beyond. http://www.rexcurry.net/stopthepledge4.html
Thereafter, the government's segregation legacy caused more police-state
racism of forced busing that destroyed communities and neighborhoods and
deepened hostilities.
Because of the Bellamy way of thinking, government-schools
spread and they mandated the Nazi-style salute by law, flags in every classroom,
and daily robotic chanting of the pledge of allegiance in military formation
like Pavlov's lapdogs of the state.
The bizarre practices served as an example for three decades before they
were adopted by the National Socialist German Workers’ Party.
When Jesse Owens competed in the 1936 Olympics in Germany, his neighbors
attended segregated government schools where they saluted the flag with
the Nazi salute.
As under Nazism, children in the USA (including
Jehovah's Witnesses and blacks and the Jewish and others) attended government
schools where segregation was imposed by law, where racism was taught as
official policy, and where they were required by law to perform the Nazi
salute and robotically chant a pledge to a flag. If they refused, then they
were persecuted and expelled from government schools and had to use the many
better alternatives. There were also acts of physical violence.
The hypnotic "Sieg Heil" salute to a flag symbol mesmerized Americans long
before it brainwashed Germans.
Jehovah's Witnesses were among the first people to publicly fight the
government and its pledge ritual in the USA, during the same time that they
fought it in Nazi Germany. They eventually achieved total victory
over Nazi socialism. They achieved only partial victory over similar
socialism in the USA. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that they
could not be forced to perform the pledge.
The Bellamys are how America became so red, white and screwed. The Government's
schools still exist, the federal flag brands government schools, and government's
teachers must chant the pledge daily. Laws still make teachers lead children
in robotic chants of the socialist’s pledge daily, on cue from the government.The
pledge gesture was altered and explicit school segregation by government
ended. Jehovah's Witnesses and other children in government schools must
watch the ritual performed by others. Students are kept ignorant of the
pledge's original salute and history.
That is why the pledge still exists. The pledge is proof of the
government's low self esteem.
Those are the many reasons why Francis Bellamy and his also-famous cousin
Edward Bellamy are known as the "American Hitlers" and as the first "American
Nazis." http://rexcurry.net/pledge1.html
Germany and the entire world is owed an apology for the horrid influence
that government had inside the U.S. in promoting socialized schools, military
socialism within government schools, the creation of industrial armies, and
daily robotic pledges of allegiance in military formation with the infamous
straight-arm salute. http://rexcurry.net/pledgeapology.html