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I think we made a mistake...well..not just us. [1]

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Date: 2025-06-26

I am a high school science teacher. Our school recently added a successful world student program where students from other countries study at our school for a year. It’s a moneymaker for us, and the opportunity for our American students to interact with students from other cultures (if not a different socioeconomic class) is a benefit too.

Several of our Spaniards, preparing to return home at the end of this school year, purchased American flags and asked classmates to sign them. And that’s ok.

But I couldn’t do it. And I’ve been thinking about that.

It was easy to write a “to the parents of” letter (OK, actually an email) to the student who asked me to sign her flag. She was a great student, I will miss her and I was glad to tell her, and her parents so.

The next thing is harder. I understand that 6 years of Boy Scouts (now called Scouting America) plus another 15 as an adult leader plus 8 years of summer camp work left a mark on me. But the mark is weird. If my Spanish student had asked me to sign a copy of the constitution I would not have hesitated a bit.

That’s the mistake I think. There is a flag code. We fly the flag. We mourn by how we fly the flag. The flag is treated reverently. We pledge to the flag. The constitution? Not so much.

I attend weekly protests at my Republican Congressman’s office. There are lots of flags and lots of signs and that’s really good. The flag as a symbol was co-opted by the right for too long. But the flag is a symbol of...what? The republic? Yes. And what is the republic? It’s people bound by a common covenant — the constitution. And I am not sure the flag gets us all the way to the end of that last sentence.

My dad is old. I seem him a little more than every other week. We work a crossword puzzle and talk and maybe eat a cinnamon roll. Yesterday we took a stab at re-writing the pledge. He is a retired English teacher (which is good because it turns out I cannot spell allegiance). Here is what we came up with:

I pledge allegiance to the constitution

of the United States of America.

And to the republic, which it describes.

One nation of laws, indivisible.

Aspiring to liberty and justice for all.

We talked about the word allegiance for awhile. There might well be a better word but the thesaurus was not much help (fidelity? Nah). I am quite curious what the comments will hold as other suggestions.

It is obvious to me that any suggestion to rewrite the pledge will be met with variations of, “Why do you hate the flag?” or “Why do you hate America?” or “Why do you hate the troops who died for the flag?” Natural replies include “Why do you hate the constitution?” followed by “Why don’t you follow the constitution.” and “The troops promised to defend the constitution. Why do you denigrate their oath and sacrifice?”

It will be a hornets nest for sure. So why do it?

First, I think it would be useful to for elected officials who piously start meetings with the pledge to be reminded that the constitution is what’s important. Not a symbol which has a tenuous connection to the constitution. Second, if the USA is going to have a future where the form of government described in constitution is respected, recitation of a pledge to that constitution in schools (students at my school recite the pledge daily) is good first step. Finally, I think “We’re the party that’s gonna follow the constitution” is a winning campaign theme. Not the only theme, but part of the package.

On that note, have a great Thursday.

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