Red Skelton: “What the Pledge means to Me”

Today is Flag Day, held on June 14 each year to commemorate the adoption of the flag of the United States on June 14, 1777, by resolution of the Second Continental Congress.

Ron Moore reached out to The Reporter to suggest we run Red Skelton’s explanation of the Pledge of Alliance on Flag Day this year. Originally broadcast on The Red Skelton Hour on Jan. 14, 1969, below is the full text of Skelton’s pledge explanation, which he credits originally to one of his elementary teachers in Vincennes, Ind.

I remember this one teacher. To me, he was the greatest teacher, a real sage of my time.

He had such wisdom. We were all reciting the Pledge of Allegiance one day, and he walked over.

Mr. Lasswell was his name.

He said, “I’ve been listening to you boys and girls recite the Pledge of Allegiance all semester, and it seems as though it is becoming monotonous to you. If I may, may I recite it and try to explain to you the meaning of each word?”

I: me, an individual, a committee of one.

PLEDGE: dedicate all of my worldly goods to give without self-pity.

ALLEGIANCE: my love and my devotion.

TO THE FLAG: our standard, Old Glory, a symbol of freedom. Wherever she waves, there is respect because your loyalty has given her a dignity that shouts freedom is everybody’s job.

OF THE UNITED: that means that we have all come together.

STATES: individual communities that have united into 48 great states. Forty-eight individual communities with pride and dignity and purpose, all divided with imaginary boundaries yet united to a common purpose, and that’s love for country.

OF AMERICA

AND TO THE REPUBLIC: a state in which sovereign power is vested in representatives chosen by the people to govern. And government is the people and it’s from the people to the leaders, not from the leaders to the people.

FOR WHICH IT STANDS

ONE NATION: meaning, so blessed by God.

INDIVISIBLE: incapable of being divided.

WITH LIBERTY: which is freedom, the right of power to live one’s own life without threats, fear, or some sort of retaliation.

AND JUSTICE: the principle or quality of dealing fairly with others.

FOR ALL: which means, boys and girls, it’s as much your country as it is mine.

Since I was a small boy, two states have been added to our country and two words have been added to the Pledge of Allegiance: UNDER GOD

Wouldn’t it be a pity if someone said, “That is a prayer,” and that would be eliminated from schools, too?

Click here to see Red Skelton speak these words on his television program.

Editor’s note: The phrase “Under God” was added to the Pledge of Allegiance in 1954. Skelton’s explanation of his personal connection to the Pledge of Allegiance was into the Congressional Record on two separate occasions.  It also won him 42 awards. Skelton died in 1997 at the age of 84.