Vakkotaur

Let's take a look at it in the original form from September 1892:

I pledge allegiance to my Flag and the Republic for which it stands; one Nation, indivisible, with Liberty and Justice for all. -- Reverend Francis Bellamy

That was it, short and to the point. I find two things interesting. The first is that the pledge is to "my Flag" which signifies a direct connection. It's not just a thing belonging to some collective entity, it is one's own thing and representation of oneself as well as one's country. The second thing is that there is no mention of God at all, despite the author being a Reverend. That's right, a Reverend didn't see fit to mention God in the Pledge that he himself wrote. He had a good reason. Church is church and state is state. The less business each has with the other, the better off they both are, and the better off everyone is.

Now, it's not that the Reverend left his work unaltered. Nope, he changed it. Here it is after an alteration in October 1892:

I pledge allegiance to my Flag and to the Republic for which it stands; one Nation, indivisible, with Liberty and Justice for all.

The change is fairly minor. He added the second instance of the word 'to' in this version. That was it. That was all the change he thought was needed.

Today's official Pledge looks a bit different. The other changes were done by other people. Or perhaps I should say were committed by committees.

( The Other Changes )

There are couple more items of interest. One is that the Pledge that Reverend Bellamy wrote was not the only choice. There was already another salute to the flag, written by George T. Balch:

The students in his New York Public Schools gave his "American Patriotic Salute" as follows: students touched first their foreheads, then their hearts, reciting, "We give our Heads - and our Hearts - to God and our Country." Then with a right arm outstretched and palms down in the direction of the flag, they competed the salute "One Country! One Language! One Flag!" (from Pledge Questions and Answers)

The other interesting item is that there are some state Pledges (so much for Balch's "One Flag") that are similar to the national Pledge, but do not include the words "under God." These states are Arkansas, Georgia and Texas. (from Pledge Questions and Answers)

There is a web site I visit from time to time. One of the graphics on the site is a U.S. flag, which is just fine as the site is run by a fellow who has served in the military and is for him to express his opinions.

What gets me is that that the graphic is not a simple red, white, and blue rendition of the flag. It only almost is. The blue field is indeed blue. The stars, which are just dots at the small size of the graphic, are indeed white. The red stripes are indeed red. All good so far. But where there should be white stripes there are not white stripes. Instead there is the background color. I see black stripes, or gray stripes depending upon which browser and which computer I'm using.

"But, Vakko, you override things normal people don't." you might point out. Ah, but even if I turn off my overrides and forego my choice of background color it still doesn't work. The site itself uses a cream or parchment background! So even if looked at it "as the designer intended" it's wrong. Red, white, blue, and cream? The web designer overlooked the choice of the graphic maker to use transparent rather than white stripes. Really, the graphic maker goofed by assuming a white background when he could have made the stripes the same white as the stars.

It's odd that someone made a flag graphic with transparent stripes. It's also odd that it's been up on that web site for some time with that problem. It wouldn't be difficult to fix - it's not a fancy PhotoShop effect or anything.

The lesson: Don't count on a white background if you want white in the image. That goes for any color, not just white.