Pledge of Allegiance

by **Saint** Mon Mar 09, 2015 9:35 am

I received this in an email this morning from a friend.

John McCain's remarks about the Pledge of Allegiance!

In light of the recent appeals court ruling in California,

with respect to the Pledge of Allegiance,

the following recollection from Senator John McCain is very appropriate:

"The Pledge of Allegiance" - by Senator John McCain

As you may know, I spent five and one half years as a prisoner of war

during the Vietnam War. In the early years of our imprisonment,

the NVA kept us in solitary confinement two or three to a cell.

In 1971 the NVA moved us from these conditions of isolation into large rooms

with as many as 30 to 40

men to a room.

This was, as you can imagine, a wonderful change and was a direct result

of the efforts of millions of Americans on behalf of

a few hundred POW's 10,000 miles from home.

One of the men who moved into my room

was a young man named Mike Christian.

Mike came from a small town near Selma, Alabama.

He didn't wear a pair of shoes until he was 13 years old.

At 17, he enlisted in the US Navy. He later earned a commission

by going to Officer Training School. Then he became a

Naval Flight Officer and was shot

down and captured in 1967.

Mike had a keen and deep appreciation of the opportunities this country and

our military provide for people who want to work and want to succeed.

As part Of the change in treatment,

the Vietnamese allowed some prisoners to receive packages from home.

In some of these packages were handkerchiefs,

scarves and other items of clothing.

Mike got himself a bamboo needle. Over a period of a couple of months,

he created an American flag and sewed on the inside of his shirt.

Every afternoon, before we had a bowl of soup,

we would hang Mike's shirt on the wall of the cell

and say the Pledge of Allegiance.

I know the Pledge of Allegiance may not seem the

most important part of our day now, but I

can assure you that

in that stark cell it was indeed

the most important and meaningful event.

One day the Vietnamese searched our cell, as they did periodically,

and discovered Mike's shirt with the flag sewn inside, and removed it.

That evening they returned, opened the door of the cell, and for

the benefit of all of us, beat Mike Christian severely for the next couple of hours.

Then, they opened the door of the cell and threw him in.

We cleaned him up as well as we could.

The cell in which we lived had a concrete slab in the middle

on which we slept. Four naked light bulbs hung in each corner of the room.

As I said, we tried to clean up Mike as well as we could. After the excitement

died down, I looked in the corner of the room, and sitting there beneath

that dim light bulb with a piece of red cloth, another shirt and his

bamboo needle, was my friend, Mike Christian. He was sitting there

with his eyes almost shut from the beating he had received,

making another American flag. He was not making the flag because it

made Mike Christian feel better. He was making that flag because he knew

how important it was to us to be able to Pledge our allegiance to our flag and country.

So the next time you say the Pledge of Allegiance,

you must never forget the sacrifice and courage

that thousands of Americans have made to build our nation

and promote freedom around the world.

You must remember our duty, our honor, and our country.

"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."

PASS THIS ON... And on... And on!

by **Ponee** Mon Mar 09, 2015 10:31 am

Thank you for sharing this SAINT! I appreciated very much !

by **Saint** Mon Mar 09, 2015 10:34 am

Ponee, your welcome. Just doing my little part for being a part of this great group here in DD. Pledge of Allegiance 2243815925

by **chilimama** Mon Mar 09, 2015 11:42 am

LOVE IT!!!!!! MADE MY EYES GET A LITTLE WET.
:throb: Pledge of Allegiance 2218296283

by IQD4US Mon Mar 09, 2015 5:56 pm

The history of the Pledge of Allegiance.

Written in 08/1892 by Francis Bellamy :

I pledge allegiance to my Flag and the Republic for which it stands, one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

In 1923, the National Flag Conference called for the words "my Flag" to be changed to "the Flag of the United States", so that new immigrants would not confuse loyalties between their birth countries and the United States. The words "of America" were added a year later.

Congress officially recognized the Pledge for the first time, in the following form, on June 22, 1942:
I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one Nation indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
At a meeting on February 12, 1948 Louis A. Bowman, an attorney from Illinois, was the first to initiate the addition of "under God" to the Pledge. The phrase "under God" was incorporated into the Pledge of Allegiance June 14, 1954, by a Joint Resolution of Congress amending §4 of the Flag Code enacted in 1942.