FW: RE: Meaning of "Under God"

[Douglas Laycock]

         I don't know how many know, but some can't figure it out in the 
most obvious cases.  We just had a flap here with a teacher demanding to 
know why a Mexican citizen would not pledge allegiance to the United 
States.  That goes to what people know about the voluntary nature of the 
Pledge, but it also goes to how rote recitation strips the words of 
meaning.  This teacher obviously had no idea what the words actually 
mean.  She backed off when the child's father wrote a respectful letter 
explaining that his son owed allegiance to Mexico.

At 03:05 PM 3/29/2004 -0600, Judith Baer wrote:

>Mae Kuykendall wrote:
>
>I actually wonder which year was
> >the first I recited Under God--I don't recall being told the phrase was
> >being added but a repressed memory is trying to emerge of reciting it
> >without Under God.
>
>
>I remember the transition vividly. The day after Flag Day, our 3rd grade (if
>you must know) teacher told us, "Yesterday, President Eisenhower signed a
>law" adding the words to the Pledge. Left unremarked was the question of the
>president's power to do this or, indeed, the fact that saying the pledge at
>all was optional. I didn't find that out until I took con law in college.
>Every year I ask my students if they knew, and the number who did has risen
>over the years. I'd be curious to know other listers' experiences.
>
>Judy Baer
>
>_______________________________________________
>To post, send message to Conlawprof at lists.ucla.edu
>To subscribe, unsubscribe, change options, or get password, see 
>http://lists.ucla.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/conlawprof



Douglas Laycock
University of Texas Law School
727 E. Dean Keeton St.
Austin, TX  78705
         512-232-1341 (voice)
         512-471-6988 (fax)
         dlaycock at mail.law.utexas.edu