What does America's Pledge of Allegiance teach us about today's epidemic of fear?

Children reciting the Pledge of Allegiance

For more than a century the word "socialist" has been used as an epithet to undermine help for desperate groups and to deny serious discussion at a time it's needed most in arguments against the national banking system, public education, Social Security, Medicare and Obama's health care plan.  And as people in the United States laud the symbols of patriotism, such as the Pledge of Allegiance, it turns out that the writer of it was a well-known social liberal of his day.

Before the Civil War the debate about collectivism or socialism was over the national banking system.  While slavery is remembered as a major cause for war, the provocation most pronounced at the outset was the South's rejection of the national banking system and other economic issues.  The argument of states rights and the notion of forced collectivism was posed in hostile language, name-calling, and aggressive tactics that instigated war.

Around the turn of the 20th century public education was also indicted as socialism too, with the proposal for a uniform practice for public schools in order to raise literacy rates and to afford more and more children an education with some standards.  The opposition called it socialist instead.
Using the word socialist has also been done to undermine Social Security, Medicare, and Obama's health care program, and to deny needed help to desperate groups as well as to prevent discussion by issuing emotionally laden jargon.  

Indeed the newspapers of the day and the talk of the town everywhere was like an epidemic, against what was interpreted as socialism, or anything that involved support for a group of people that did not focus especially on the individual at its core.  It was an epidemic of fear.  The notion of a group effort to educate, and to make it possible for everyone, was seen as an assault on American ability to make decisions about what to learn in a classroom and to embrace people in those classrooms who did not have the "right" pedigrees,in terms of economics or class.

It is during elections that the term socialist is heard most often as an epithet, including being hurled at President Barack Obama.  The problem is that the term is used too often to avoid legitimate debate on the issues.  Few people know that the symbols they admire, like the Pledge of Allegiance, was written by a man who, with his brother were both socialists.

The Pledge of Allegiance was written in response to  concerns about opposition against public education.  It was composed by Francis Bellamy, (1855 - 1931)  a Baptist minister and author who composed the Pledge in 1892 as part of a quadricentennial program celebrating Columbus Day and for an educational journal called The Youth’s Companion. 

Bellamy's ideas were considered socialist and radical for his time, similar to those of first cousin, Edward Bellamy, who had written several American socialist novels including Looking Backward andEquality. Both Francis and Edward Bellamy believed in a planned economy that would provide political, social and economic equality, beliefs which caused Francis to be asked to leave his position as minister of a Baptist church in Boston. 

During the Columbus Day Program Bellamy addressed state superintendents of education in the National Education Association as well as a large gathering of young people and other celebrants. He knew many Americans considered public schools to be socialistic and that President Harrison was worried about the backlash.  

Bellamy also recognized the nation continued to struggle with its identity as a republic, something that had been declared established by the Civil War that had taken place thirty years before but that continued to be tested by certain social struggles. 

At that Columbus Day presentation, Bellamy began his presentation by talking about how the public schools could unite the nation. He went on to say: "The coming century promises to be more than ever the age of the people; an age that shall develop a greater care for the rights of the weak, and make a more solid provision for the development of each individual by the education that meets his need…... Our fathers in their wisdom knew that the foundations of liberty, fraternity, and equality must be universal education. The free school, therefore, was conceived as the cornerstone of the Republic. Washington and Jefferson recognized that the education of citizens is not the prerogative of church or of other private interest; that while religious training belongs to the church, and while technical and higher culture may be given by private institutions - the training of citizens in the common knowledge and the common duties of citizenship belongs irrevocably to the State.”

Following these statements Bellamy unveiled his Pledge of Allegiance. The original Pledge was as follows, “I pledge allegiance to my Flag and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.” Bellamy had considered placing the word, 'equality,' in his Pledge but knew that the state superintendents of education on his committee were against equality for women and African Americans. 

When the Pledge was changed from “my flag” to “the Flag of the United States of America,” Bellamy protested and was ignored. 

The words “under God” were added in 1954 in response to issues raised during the McCarthy era of anti-Communism when many loyal Americans, including another great African American of intellect, Paul Robeson, had their patriotism challenged. Many of Bellamy’s descendants have said that Bellamy would not have liked the addition of the words “under God,” particularly since he had to leave his position as minister and his church in 1891 because of his socialist sermons. 

So what was Bellamy thinking when he wrote the original pledge? Writers about Bellamy and the Pledge seem to agree that he wanted to stress the importance of the nation as a republic, one nation indivisible. Although Bellamy was to show some ambivalence to immigrant groups and to African Americans in his later writings, he was considered to be a social liberal with respect to the ideals he held at the time he wrote the Pledge.

So do symbols and how we use them make us Americans? Not according to the experts and not according to the one who made one of the most powerful contributions to America’s repository of valued sayings and symbols recited at important meetings and school events across the United States, the Pledge of Allegiance.

Indeed the conclusion seems to be that being an American has more to do with standing for an indivisible republic and recognizing the values of liberty, equality and justice within it. These are the values espoused by the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, the Gettysburg Address and the Pledge of Allegiance. The principal authors of these documents would likely agree with modern scholars on etiquette that respectful attention to the symbols, however that might be demonstrated, is more important than some outdated specified practice that does not reflect at all on whether or not a person is a true patriotic American.

They would certainly be worried that the old arguments continue to be dredged up in the same way all the time, which was seen then as efforts to negate helping the greater community in favor of the rich and their needs.  The Pledge of Allegiance is said to have been written not to be recited in ritualistic fashion, in a special way with the hands over the heart, but simply to stand respectfully as it is said.  It is one of those historical references that allow people to understand that symbols and their representations may not always have been conceived in the fashion they are represented today and may indeed be like other symbols, meant to consolidate community support to help the greater good.

And as today's greater good can mean a worldwide effort to combat infectious diseases like Ebola, even as fear again points to anything being done to help that greater community and the greater good as undermining individual freedom of choice, using epithets like socialism instead of reason and justice, something the Bellamy brothers valued most.

ReferencesAssociated Press, June 2002, Pledge writer probably wouldn't mind removal of under God, family says,”
Baer, John. The Pledge of Allegiance, A Revised History and Analysis, 2007Baer, John, The Life and Ideas of Francis Bellamy, 1992
John McCormick, Obama in Red, White and Blue, Chicago Tribune, June 30, 2008
Miller, Margarette S. Twenty-Three Words, Portsmouth, Va. Printcraft Press, 1976.
Snopes.com
Worley, Stephen L., SMSgt. USAF (Ret). Prairie Ridge US History "The Pledge of Allegiance- Francis Bellamy." 1998.  

Recalling a pilgrimage to Dr. King's Atlanta home and the lessons of the day

[caption id="attachment_22440" align="alignleft" width="296"] Dr. Martin Luther King[/caption]

Carol Forsloff----It was a long day in Atlanta, warm, sunny, and a stopover on the way to Florida from Pittsburgh at a time when the country had moved on from the angry shouts and hurts that emanated from the Civil Rights era, and those wounds felt by so many, to another time, eight years after the death of Martin Luther King in 1968, and a pilgrimage to the memorials.  The memories remain, in reflection, along with life's lessons that stay in the heart as his birthday is tomorrow.

Atlanta was not in my traveling plans, but a missed plane left me stranded in a strange city with no sense of direction, unable to drive and without a car in a place I had never been and only read about.  Those things associated with the city of Atlanta had been the civil rights demonstrations and marches, the acrimony shown on television between blacks and whites and the still older images of the burning of the city during the Civil War.  It was not a positive mindset, held by a woman of the West of liberal leanings; and the first thought was to remain at the airport and simply read a book I had tucked in a travel bag for those occasions of boredom when traveling some distance from Pittsburgh, where I had been living for years.

But a venture out on the curb outside the airport terminal and a look around, emboldened me enough to flag a cab driver who happened to be driving along.  I knew Martin Luther King had lived and was buried in the city, so the plan was to go to the memorial, expecting to be one of a minority of white people interested in visiting the former civil rights leader's grave.

When I told the cabdriver of my plans he replied, "Well, this is my taxi; and I have never been to those places myself.  Why don't I show you the town, if you don't mind my picking up other fares along the way so I don't lose all the income for the day." The agreement was made, as funds were limited anyway by the unexpected time and cost of staying for hours in Atlanta, and a welcome invitation for sure.

We drove through the town through neighborhoods of plain, simple houses, of the kind where I had lived and other middle class friends did as well.  Along the way the cabdriver stopped for a man in a fine suit, who politely offered hello, took a seat, as we shared the ride to the home where Martin Luther King had once lived and the home still a residence for his family in 1976, long after his death in 1967.  The man in the suit offered his card, long lost and forgotten, with a name not recalled anymore, but said, with the card, "I am Sammy Davis Jr's agent, and I too have never been to the home of Dr. King.  I met him many times but have never been to the place where he lived." He seemed surprised I was going there too.

The conversations among us, the cabdriver, originally from the Middle East, a middle-aged African man and me were part of the day's good memories of how strangers meet and in a journey learn and grow with the time.  For each of us visiting King's home and his gravesite came with a different response, but similar too, with respect for the man who had dedicated his life to the freedom of man, black and white.

The house was modest, and not one folks might associate with a man of such incredible reputation, talent and moral strength.  Yet there it was, the downstairs portion dedicated to an office and library collection of civil rights books and memorabilia, while the upstairs, the secretary said, continued to be the family home.  I asked, "Mostly black people come here to visit or people from up North like me?"  "Oh no," said the woman, a smile on her face, "Actually most of the people who visit here and the grave, as well as Ebenezer Baptist Church are white Southerners."  The stereotype of angry white people assaulting black folks with rocks, hoses and epithets dissolved in that comment, to teach me that the news doesn't always present all the facts, but the sensational ones get more attention instead.  We three stood there, listened and wandered a bit through the small area, then left to visit the grave.

Davis' agent was the first to make his way to the gravesite, standing silently and saying aloud, "How I miss you, my brother," as tears began drifting down the cheek of a man who obviously knew Dr. King.  The taxi driver also stood in respect, saying nothing, but his eyes full of wonderment still.  And I feeling privileged just to be there to honor, remember the man I had only seen on television and celebrated just in my heart, knelt for a minute and prayed.

We returned to the cab, somewhat moved at the time, exclaiming, but softly, the feelings that all of us shared.  We three seemed to know we had been somewhere significant and expressed it with joy in our words, as the passenger, who had shared the journey, was left at his hotel, smiling and waving like a friend saying farewell to another on a day that was special to both.

What I learned on that day that has lasted for years is that strangers can share intimate moments of feelings, as had happened that day, especially when surrendering preconceived notions as well.  I wasn't a white woman from Pittsburgh, the cabdriver not a Middle Eastern immigrant and the man who had introduced himself as Sammy Davis Jr's agent was just another person that day, remembering to honor a friend and knowing that friend's greatness as well.  We were three people each on a pilgrimage of sorts to pay respects to the great man martyred for his work and beliefs.

 

 

Here are some of the risks to creativity from bipolar illness and depression

Carol Forsloff — Mental health scientists have long known that there is a higher percentage of visual artists and musicians with bipolar disorder and depression than the normal population.  But is this just a tragedy for the social order and those who suffer from the illness or are there benefits that can teach us about ourselves and bring compassion , understanding and art appreciation as well?

Even great scientists and politicians, who brought high creativity to their endeavors, have also been categorized with bipolar disorder or depression. Abraham Lincoln and Charles Darwin looked at life out of unique life’s lenses. As a result  of Darwin’s perception, we have an understanding about how man and all nature evolved. And as a result of Lincoln’s deep feelings about himself, and his integration of those feelings with all humanity, the Great Emancipator forged the documents and the government strength to win a civil war over slavery and abolish the institution of slavery as an institution in the United States.

Experts tell us that creative people with bipolar disorder and depression may be drawn to the arts or other ventures where innovation is the mechanism for generating ideas that are outside what many would describe as the ordinary boundaries of performance.

The American Journal of Psychiatry from 1987 found that in 30 creative writers, there was a higher rate of bipolar disorder. They also were found to have higher IQs. A study in the  Journal of Affective Disorders in 2007 also found a higher percentage of creative skills in bipolar patients than those without a diagnosed mental disorder. Some mental health experts maintain that creative people are drawn to the arts and certain sciences because in looking for ways to ease their personal pain, or to understand themselves and their universe, they use their perceptions to uncover new pathways, new ideas and new ways to express their art. In doing so, they become leaders and often great contributors to the culture.

Those individuals with bipolar disorder have periods of both mania and depression. In their heightened states, great mood swings can occur; yet often it is within that uptick of mood that creativity can abound, as demonstrated by great works of art done during these episodes.  And while researchers continue to look for medications and cures for these episodes, some researchers wonder if in doing so we will eliminate that mechanism for creative advancement at the same time. In other words, our cure, or our need to make “them” like “us” may in fact reduce a level of creativity in our culture that brings value to our culture for generations.

 

 

 

Juneteenth and historical revisions on freeing the slaves

[caption id="attachment_15534" align="alignleft" width="300"] Juneteenth celebration in Natchitoches, Louisiana[/caption]

While Americans remember the end of the Civil War and the Emancipation Proclamation signed by Abraham Lincoln, what many Americans don't know  more than a century and a half later is that some of the southern states did not readily accept  that proclamation and made the announcement that freed the slaves years later.

According to the National Register,  June 19 is the oldest celebration of the freeing of slaves in the United States, which occurred in 1865. For many African-Americans it holds a special significance. It also reminds the nation how terribly divided it has been. It  is a reminder, despite protestations to the contrary, that race continues to be an issue in America. Furthermore political differences continue to surround the notion of states rights versus federal ones, the issue being of prominence in the discussion about banking as well as private business, which were the arguments that precipitated the Civil War.  Private business had to do with slaves who were considered property and part of the core of cotton as a business.

So June 19 is not just the date for African-Americans to celebrate.  It also peels back the blinders many people have that the freeing of the slaves was some romantic vision, as  in some of the old Hollywood movies, such as Gone with the Wind. In that movie, the southern folk were kind enough,  understanding and loving servants who were slaves. And the slaves, although grateful and singing about freedom, remain happily in the extended family of former slaves and Masters. But that was not the case, as revealed by the fact that many Southerners would not accept the end of slavery and the bitterness remained until the official proclamation. Still some of that bitterness is part of the echoes of political dissension in the 21st century. Juneteenth speaks to the differences as well as the focus on the nature of freedom itself.  That's why it's a world celebration.

In Louisiana and in Texas, where African-Americans were not notified that they had been freed for some time after the Emancipation Proclamation, celebrations draw out many people who would not otherwise know the history. The celebrations are a reminder of this difficult time in the United States history and the road so difficult to travel in the political atmosphere nearly 150o years later.

Rep. Fleming at fault if La. man doesn't get Soc. Security

[caption id="attachment_7296" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Representative John Fleming of Louisiana"][/caption]

Carol Forsloff - Robert Jordan is one among millions of senior citizens who could be impacted by a government default, and he points the finger of blame where many are sending it these days: straight to the right flank of the Republican Party.

Jordan works part-time for the Veterans Administration as a mental health counselor.  He is retired in Louisiana and supplements his income, as many seniors do, with part-time work.  Still Social Security income is part of that retirement plan, that promise he and other seniors were given for income after a lifetime of earnings contributions.  Now it hangs in the balance if Congress does not pass the budget.  He says he will blame Representative John Fleming of Louisiana, one of the House Republicans considered on the right wing of the plank.  Fleming has been  on Fox News discussing his position which is in line with the newest members of Congress, for no new taxes yet massive cuts in spending for programs like Medicare and Social Security.  Fleming is also on record against the health care programs and at one time agreed with someone at a forum in Natchitoches, Louisiana that the nation reconsider federal banking, something that was part of the civil war agenda.

Most Americans agree with Jordan, that it is the Republicans who are taking the most extreme position by listening to their most rightward flank.  These are the 80+ freshman class, many supported by the Tea Party, who took a pledge not to raise taxes for whatever reason.  This means no negotiation.  No negotiation, experts tell us, means a budget impasse and a debt crisis in less than a week.

Jordan is one of the lucky ones, however.  For 26% of senior Americans Social Security is their only source of income, according to the Council on Aging.  Then there is the ugly spectacle of seniors unable to get medical care during an economic catastrophe, as they may not have the means to pay for it.  While many seniors have already been impoverished in the downturn of the recession, they face even more devastation financially from the possibility of losing Social Security and Medicare at a time when they are most vulnerable.

As some people say, it is playing chicken with the ones who can’t get in the game at all because they no longer have the ability or the social recognition to play as well.

The media present the politicians point of view, but few ask those seniors how bad it is for them now and how much worse it can be.  Jordan sent the media an email, as the impetus for this article.

As for the blame?  Jordan has followed through with President Obama’s request.  He has pointed the finger at his Representative,  John Fleming, a man who ran against Obama even though he was only running for the House of Representatives and whose word for social support systems is “socialism,” a term used frequently by the right-wing plank of the Republican party.

What Jordan hopes, and millions of others of his certain age do too, is that Congressional members will put their ideological views on hold in favor of what surveys of Americans want now:  raise the debt ceiling so seniors don’t suffer more.

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This article is in response to a letter from a reader, as this site has no specific political category but addresses the issues.  Jordan is concerned about an issue that faces the country, specifically senior Americans, and like millions of seniors asks for a voice in the debate.  This article is in recognition of that voice to raise the debt ceiling and prevent a crisis.

Anniversary of civil war memorialized by 'Trouble of the World'

[caption id="attachment_2132" align="alignnone" width="242" caption="Great gospel singer"][/caption]

Carol Forsloff - This week was the anniversary of the outbreak of the civil war.  While there remains tension among regions of the country on states' rights, most Americans trust in a United States and a perfect union.  It was slavery that brought the North and South to the bloodiest battle on American soil, as brothers fought against brothers in a controversy over the right to own slaves, something African Americans, and the rest of us, memorialize in gospel songs.

No more was that gospel sound made more wonderful than by Mahalia Jackson.  Today audiophiles embrace the range of her majestic voice and seek to exhibit it through manipulating old phonographs onto Internet sites where we can all enjoy this great lady's songs.

"Trouble of the World" is one of those great gospel songs that speaks as much as anyone can of the tragedies and faith that brought the tensions to war and the reconciliation of faith that helped heal the people in the decades that followed. It was made especially memorable in the film "Imitation of Life" that starred Lana Turner and Sandra Dee, that poignantly described the grief caused by racial problems and stereotypes.

America continues to struggle through changes and divisions in the political process. That "trouble of the world" reflected by war and by gospel songs that speak of human suffering is something to ponder as the country continues to struggle with problems caused by race. Those problems, when denied, cannot be solved without acknowledging the trouble that once happened when allowed to fester long. Racial disagreements and denials brought the country once to war, so that a gospel song that reminds us of the "trouble of the world" that matters might serve as a reminder to a nation that continues to struggle with the remnants of its past.

Trouble of the World by Mahalia Jackson

Daughter of the South writes book about ‘The Un-Civil War’ in America

[caption id="attachment_4246" align="alignleft" width="256" caption="Southern Belle, civil war"][/caption]



Kay Matthews -  Shirley Farris Jones had a
Confederate great-grandfather and great-great-grandfather, and added to the mix
is a Yankee great-grandfather.  Based on
letters, family folklore, and oral history, Farris wrote “The Un-Civil War in
Middle Tennessee” in honor of the 150th anniversary of America’s Civil War.

Jones has shared with this
reporter why her book would appeal to readers outside of Tennessee or to those beyond America's borders.  Jones stated, in part, “Lives were forever changed as a result of the death and destruction brought about by a nation at
war with itself…150 years later we cannot change what happened then, but we, as
a people, can learn from those experiences.”

The historian and
author also shared, via an email interview, why she wrote the book, which was
published in October of 2010 by the Rutherford County Historical Society
located in Murfreesboro, TN.

Jones’ Tennessee
roots run deep.  She is a lifelong
resident of Murfreesboro and said, “I grew up hearing the stories of my
heroic Confederate great and great-great-grandfathers.  Dr. John Kennerly Farris, Co. I., 41st Tenn.
Vol. Infantry, was my great-grandfather, and Calvin C. Lowe,, my
great-great-grandfather, served with in Co. B, 23rd Tenn. Vol, Infantry.  When my grandfather Lowe passed away in 1975,
the family folklore and oral history that had been told to me by my grandfather
I felt had to be preserved in some lasting form.”

Jones’ knowledge of
her ancestors goes beyond folklore and oral history.  Her great-grandfather, Dr. John Farris, kept
a diary.  The diary, according to Jones,
was “in the form of letters to his wife, Mary, which he would send home
to her in Coffee County as the opportunity presented itself.  These letters had been preserved and my
father and I began to transcribe them in the 1980's as my father's health
declined, and this was an interesting way for us to spend quality time
together.  After my father passed away in
1989, I was determined to complete the transcribing process and publish them.  ‘Letters to Mary:  the Civil War Diary of Dr. John Kennerly
Farris’ came off the press in 1994.”

Dr. Farris’ letters to his wife
detail his varied military experiences including being captured and made a
prisoner of war for seven months at Camp Morton, Indiana.  Farris was exchanged and made “part of the
newly reorganized 41st in fighting all across Mississippi 1862-63, on to
Chickamauge, Chattanooga, Atlanta, Franklin, and finally the Battle of
Nashville in December 1864.”

Jones notes that, at the end of
the Civil War, her great-grandfather Farris “felt quite strongly…that it would
not be in the best interest if the South were to win the war.”

Asked about the most surprising
discovery she made about her ancestors while doing research for the book, Jones
replied, “Well, as we find the answer to one question, it seems in many cases
to only open new doors to our past.  Such
was my situation.  I discovered I had a
Yankee Great-grandfather!!!!!  And, not
only that, he and my other great-grandfather were friends.”

The “odd friendship” developed in
1865 when Dr. Farris began practicing medicine in his community, but it was
dangerous due to the “un-civilness.”  As
such, the Provost Marshall assigned John Neese, a Union Calvary Officer, to
accompany Dr. Farris on his travels.

“Neese was shot in the arm and
seriously wounded,” said Jones.  “Farris
treated and saved the arm.  After the war
ended, and Neese went home to Armstrong County, PA the two men kept in touch.  Farris invited Neese to visit him at his farm
in Coffee County during the summer of 1867.
He did.  And then the next year
Neese moved his family to Coffee County, after purchasing land adjoining the
Farris property.  My grandmother, Mary
Neese, was born in 1878 in Coffee County.
Two decades later, she would marry Dr. John Kennerly Farris, Jr.   The friendship which began in 1865 would
endure the remainder of the lives of both Neese and Farris.”

What began as a “hobby” for
Shirley Farris Jones has expanded far beyond her “wildest expectations.”  Jones is now promoting her book at Tennessee
radio stations and historical societies.
Yet, Jones is confident that the book will appeal to readers living
outside of Tennessee.

“The human interest stories of
the men who fought and died, and those who didn’t actually participate in
combat, but whose lives were dramatically affected, perhaps changed forever,
are what bring the reality of that day and time to life in today’s world,” said
Jones.

Sources:

Email interview with Shirley Farris Jones conducted Feb. 6,
2011

Kay Mathews:  “Author
discusses the uncivil side of America’s Civil War” on Digital Journal at http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/303410

Tennessee News Press: http://tennesseenewspress.com/2010/12/01/un-civil-war-reaches-library/

Rutherford County Tennessee Historical Society: http://www.rutherfordtnhistory.org/