Created by a Socialist who had no interest in Freedom.

If, for some reason, the flag changed - which it did, many times - would that revoke your previous pledges.

The changes then were just a rearrangement of the stars. (You see them in cowboy movies: http://creativeroots.org/wp-content/u...

But what if it completely changed? Would that revoke your pledge to the flag. (I accept that you also pledged allegiance to the republic for which the flag stands. However, the conjunction there is "and". Both must be true for the statement to be true.

But, let's not neglect the fact that he was a devout believer in God, regardless of our personal opinions on the subject. His beliefs had a major part in making him the fine person he was.

I understand your point, and it's a good one! But I have to reiterate that pledging allegiance is not the same as saying you support and idea or are an ally of a concept. It's root is in the concept of a liege lord, someone or something to which you give unquestioning obedience. No one and no thing has my allegiance. They have my support only so far as they can argue for it, and only on a case by case basis.
Allegiance, in the way that it not only was originally conceived but historically has been used, is the same as unconditional love in this respect. Unconditional love destroys the concept of love altogether, because to love is to value and valuing a virtue and a vice equally defies the law of cause and effect. It raises the vice and destroys the virtue.
If I am to take a pledge, it will be this:
"I swear, by my life and my love of it, that I shall never live for the sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for mine."
That is a promise that I will make. Not to a country, a Country, a republic, a Republic, etc.

No, it's not an abdication, it is a statement of affirmation. Because I a sovereign individual state that I am an ally of the "United States of America" -- not necessarily the corrupt and occupying government which is in the process of destroying the union of those states.

When I was a small boy {sorry}, each year the school principal would play a record of this over the PA system, and we would then discuss what we heard and what it meant to us.

It was annoying that so many of my contemporaries failed to listen, failed to comprehend, and failed to participate in the ensuing discussions.

Anyone who equivocates "Flag" with 'government' 'leader', 'ruler' or any specific individual or office, has missed the point. Just as the "Republic" is not the the representatives who have lead the nation astray for their personal gratification, the republic is the process which what is supposed to protect the people from the government.

I've been raised to fury at the weak and selfish men who occupy the offices of the republic, as any man of good faith should be. But my goal is to punish the specific evil-doers, not wipe away the framework that allows men of good conscience and disparate viewpoints to coexist in harmony.

That's why I pledge.

And because I'm a (small 'a') atheist, I simply pause when the two words added are spoken by the rest.

Thanks for posting. That's how few Americans actually recite the Pledge nowadays - with heartfelt meaning, honor, and dignity. Our nation isn't what it once was because it has abandoned a dedication to the principles of liberty and justice for all, but I still believe in the correctness of the principle.

I agree with that. I posted Skelton's Pledge for a couple of reasons. (See above to khalling.) The first thing that grabbed me was his insistence on "I". He made it explicit, as he did the entire Pledge. He was an intelligent self-made man and his patriotism was conceptually-based, not merely traditional, as was, for instance, John Wayne's.

The Pledge of Allegiance was written by Francis Bellamy a Christian socialist. (Nice tribute to him and the Pledge on Huffington Post here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/peter-d....

I think that the current flap over kneeling for the National Anthem is a similar false dichotomy for which an Objectivist would have a different, albeit patriotic, answer.

I saw this live, by cracky, when I was just a little whippersnapper.
I'm fairly sure I first saw it in black and white.
That would be a next door neighbor named Kay pointed at our DuMont and told Mom how much nicer those new color TVs are.
https://www.google.com/search?q=dumon...
Bye-bye, DuMont. Don't go away mad. Just go away.

Growing up in Los Angeles (not Pasadena!), I always looked forward to The Red Skelton Show. Then I discovered a curious relationship: My father's cousin was married to a woman who was also cousin to Red Skelton's wife! They would visit frequently with the Skelton's, and his wife would usually give them some of her clothing that she no longer wanted. I wanted to go with them one day, but my father died before that could happen and I never saw those cousins again. "Ain't it funny," as the song goes, "how time slips away."

The "Under God addition does turn the pledge into a prayer and is entirely unnecessary. It is a useless 5th limb that was added to show the difference between America and the godless USSR. Otherwise, Red is totally correct and there is no doubt about his unabashed patriotism.

I still think of the Pledge as an abdication of your self, your mind, your individuality, and everything else that goes along with that to not just the state and it's controls, but to a symbol of that state. None of which, IMO, is proper for an Objectivist... aka an egoist, a radical capitalist, a fighter for not just the rights, but the heroic and moral place of the individual, to support.

I show this to my classroom at the beginning of the year.

Good point.

Do we have any elected legislative "leaders"?

... that all being as it is, I agree with you that the Pledge of Allegiance was part of a progressive agenda. The progressives of that time were like the neo-conservatives of ours.

Always loved this

"And the government is the people and from the people to the leaders, not from the leaders to the people".
Do we have any elected legislative leaders who believe this?

I think that it speaks for itself. For one thing, he said that he had only a 7th grade education, still typical for his time (born 1913). He was a self-admitted clown. However, his genius and hard work are clear to anyone else who has achieved individual success.

Skelton's humor was in some ways like that of Danny Thomas and a few others who found an uplifting way to bring laughs, different from sarcasm and put-downs.

"At the time of his death, his art dealer believed that Skelton had earned more money through his paintings than from his television work.

"Skelton believed his life's work was to make people laugh; he wanted to be known as a clown because he defined it as being able to do everything." -- Wikipedia here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Ske...
but much more on the dedicated site here:
http://www.redskelton.com/

So, it is to be expected that he had deep thoughts about patriotism. His beliefs may not be yours or mine, but he was explicitly conceptual in them.

I like this, but I am curious to why you posted this with no context, considering the history of the Pledge. Please, can you give me personal context? cuz I think we'd be on the same page on this