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I PLEDGE ALLEGIANCE

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.

And I pledge allegiance to a lot more than that. I pledge allegiance to my country and to my countrymen. I pledge allegiance to the soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines who right now are standing between us and evil.

I pledge allegiance to the notion that we are all free and equal, that whether you came here on the Mayflower or a slave ship, as a refugee or a reject, a great hero or a nameless nobody, you are an American. And you are my brother or sister. And we are family. And nobody crosses us.

I pledge allegiance to the cab drivers and the waitresses, the firemen and the cops, the nurses and the teachers. The withered old people clinging to life and the squawking babies still pasty from their mothers' wombs. The people at computers and standing at assembly lines. The moms and dads, sons and daughters, the families who are the backbone of this land.

I pledge allegiance to the farmers in their fields, and amidst their herds and great orchards. The men and women who feed the world and turn nature's bounty and raw materials into the fullest supermarkets and bellies on the planet. Who produce in such abundance that the poorest of the poor eat well and the starving of the globe open relief boxes stamped with the American flag.

I pledge allegiance to two hundred and some years of doing it our way. Of conquering a continent and wrestling it into productivity and kneeling in gratitude to the God who made it all possible. I pledge allegiance to the faith of our fathers, spoken in different ways but offered up with like sincerity. To the churches and synagogues and mosques. Wherever good people learn love at the Creator's hand.

I pledge allegiance to the Founding Fathers and to their vision. To the Constitution they wrote and the nation they forged. To Washington and Adams, Jefferson and Madison, Lincoln and Roosevelt, Truman and Reagan. To Clara Barton and Frederick Douglass, Luther Burbank and Meriwether Lewis, Thomas A. Edison and John M. Browning, Dwight David Eisenhower and Harriet Beecher Stowe. To all who have gone before and done so with greatness, known to the world or consigned to obscurity. Who have contributed to the nation I love.

I pledge allegiance to the Congress of the United States, and the presidency, and the various legislatures and executives of the sundry states and municipalities. To the notion that our voices together select our leaders and laws, that through accountable intermediaries we govern ourselves, from the school down the street to the Capitol in Washington. I pledge allegiance to the courts, where justice is blind and the standing is equal, where the murderer and his victim find justice and representation before the might of the people. Where a nation of laws serves a nation of rulers.

I pledge allegiance to the future, and to the nation we will give our children. We will work to leave it as prosperous, free and strong as we received it. To give as good as we got, to bequeth our descendents a land as great as the one delivered to us by our ancestors.

I pledge allegiance to the force of arms against our enemies and attackers. I will fight in any and every way to protect my nation, its interests and people, be that in the arena of opinion and public attitude, or on the field of battle. I pledge allegiance to the notion that American victory must be unequivocal and absolute, that no weapon or means should be spared to protect this nation and that no consideration should be allowed to temper the fury of our defense. Those who attack us must surrender unconditionally, or be annihilated.

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.

And I pledge allegiance to a lot more than that.

- by Bob Lonsberry © 2002