What administration isn't saying -- students can decline to participate in the "God Pledge."

he Bush administration and federal Department of Education are backing an effort to organize school children for a national recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance.

   The event, dubbed "Pledge Across America" is scheduled for Tuesday, September 17, 2002 at 2 PM EDT. It comes a week after the one-year anniversary of the Islamic terrorist attacks on targets in Washington, DC and New York City, and in the midst of a national debate over whether the words "under God" should be included in the pledge.

   In June, a panel of the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals heard the case of California Atheist Michael Newdow, and ruled that the inclusion of the "god phrase" was an impermissible establishment of religion. The reaction was quick and furious. Members of Congress took to the steps of the Capitol in Washington for a lusty round of singing and pledging, and President Bush denounced the decision as "out of step with the traditions and history of America."

   Enforcement of the ruling has been put on hold pending appeals. That means that "under God" remains part of the pledge, and will inevitably be recited on Tuesday during the national event.

   The idea for a simultaneous pledge recitation was started by retired teacher Paula Burton. Her organizing group, "Celebration USA" until recently enjoyed only modest support from school districts across the country. That has changed thanks to the September 11 attacks, and the simultaneous pledge ritual now has the support of the Bush White House and Secretary of Education Rod Paige. A press advisory from the DOE predicts that "more than 130,000 public and private elementary and secondary schools, home schools, and after-school programs throughout the country" will be participating. DOE is mailing "service guide materials" to schools to promote the event.

   Burton operates "Celebration USA" from her home in Villa Park, California. Several corporate, philanthropic and civic entities fund the organization, including Pacific Bell phone company, Farmers Insurance, LifeTouch (a company specializing in high school year book photos) and the Ralph Leatherby philanthropic trust formed by insurance magnate Ralph W. Leatherby.

   Leatherby, a trustee of Chapman University who died in June, 2000, was chairman of the Orange County YMCA federation, and according to his son had "a strong religious frame of reference."

   Another backer of "Celebration USA" is the Armstrong Foundation based in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. During the 2000 election campaign, the foundation partnered with the Republican National Committee and Rep. J.C. Watts to announce a strategically-time grant for constructing low income housing.

   Burton admits that ever since starting the drive to organize a nationwide, simultaneous recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance, support for the scheme was problematic.

   "It took the 9/11 to get the United States government involved," though, and galvanize more support Burton told a CNN interviewer in June. When asked if the words "under God" should be considered an integral component to the pledge, Burton added that its inclusion was "essential."

   ''Under God' does not necessarily refer to a religious statement," Burton cagily added. "I think it's a spiritual unifying reference or statement that can mean a number of things."

   A person who disagreed with the 'under God' portion "simply has to not say those words," she argued.

   The Pledge of Allegiance did not mention any deity, though, when it was penned by Francis Bellamy, a Baptist minister with socialist leanings. Elements of the pledge also grew out of an essay contest sponsored in 1892 by The Youth's Companion magazine based in Boston, Mass. Over the years, phrases were added. It was not until 1942, however, when the U.S. Congress stepped in to officially codify the wording to read:

"I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one Nation indivisible, with liberty and justice for all."    "God" was amalgamated into the Pledge of Allegiance when in 1952 the Roman Catholic Knights of Columbus launched a campaign to include the religious sloganeering. The McCarthy era was in full swing, and public profession of religious belief was promoted as both a litmus test of political loyalty and a badge of religious patriotism in the struggle against "godless Communism."

   In Congress, Sen. Homer Ferguson heard the call and co-sponsored a resolution to add "under God" to the pledge.

   "Our nation was founded on a fundamental belief in God," Ferguson declared.

   Lawmakers even debated the religious and political correctness of punctuation for the new pledge. Should it read "One nation, under God" or simply "One Nation under God"? The Library of Congress weighed in with an official written opinion to exclude the comma, insisting that if "the basic idea is a Nation founded on a belief in God, there would seem to be no reason for a comma after Nation; 'one Nation under God' thus becomes a single phrase, emphasizing the idea desired by the authors..."

   President Dwight Eisenhower gladly signed the bill into law. Other measures were passed mandating the replacement of the original national motto, E Pluribus Unum or "Out of Many, One"; a god-oath for federal judges; and the inclusion of religious slogans on the national currency.

   All of the hoopla and other efforts to promote the simultaneous recitation of the "god pledge," though, fail to mention that no student -- indeed, no citizen -- can be compelled to recite the Pledge of Allegiance, with or without its religious elements.

   In 1935, ten-year old Billy Gobitas wrote to the Minersville (Pennsylvania) School District Board insisting, "I do not salute the flag because I have promised to do the will of God."

   "His refusal, and that of his sister Lillian (age twelve), touched off one of the several constitutional legal cases delineating the tension between the authority of the state to require respect for national symbols and the right of individuals to freedom of speech," noted a report from the Library of Congress.

   The Gobitas family were members of the Jehovah's Witnesses sect, and considered adoration of a national flag to be a form of idolatry. On October 22, 1935, young Billy refused to participate in the daily pledge ceremony. Two weeks later, he and his sister were expelled by a vote of the school board.

   The Witnesses filed a legal action. A U.S. District Court ruled in favor of the Gobitas family, but in 1940, the US Supreme Court reversed that ruling in an eight to one decision. This was the historic MINERSVILLE SCHOOL DISTRICT v. GOBITIS case. A error by the government printer enshrined the misspelling of the Gobitas name.

   Three years later, however, high court justices reconsidered their decision in the case of WEST VIRGINIA STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION v. BARNETTE (1943). The 6-3 vote reversed GOBITIS, with Justice Robert Jackson writing:

"If there is any fixed star in our constitutional constellation, it is that no official, high or petty, can prescribe what shall be orthodox in politics, nationalism, religion, or other matters of opinion or force citizens to confess by word or act their faith therein. If there are any circumstances which permit an exception, they do not now occur to us.

"We think the action of the local authorities in compelling the flag salute and pledge transcends constitutional limitation on their power and invades the sphere of intellect and spirit which is the purpose of the First Amendment to our Constitution to reserve from all official control."

   Students can refuse to recite the Pledge of Allegiance. There have been court disputes, though, over how far particularly schools might go in demanding some sort of conformity by independent-minded youngsters. Students can be told that they have the "option" of standing or sitting silently during the pledge. This kind of marginalization, however, can leave those students vulnerable to harassment, insult or other reprisals by comrades, teachers and administrators.

   Michael Newdow's suit, heard by a panel of the US Ninth Circuit Court, argued that "under God" in the pledge effectively established a monotheistic religion.

   Writing for the 2-1 majority, Judge Alfred T. Goodwin agreed.

   "A profession that we are a nation 'under God' is identical, for Establishment Clause purposes, to a profession that we are a nation 'under Jesus,' a nation 'under Vishnu,' a nation 'under Zeus,' or a nation 'under no god,' because none of these professions can be neutral with respect to religion," Goodwin wrote.

   Bush, ignoring the fact that the Pledge of Allegiance was a relatively recent invention with an even shorter pedigree for the 'under God' slogan, denounced the ruling as being out of step with American history.

   Congress condemned the ruling in the Newdow case, and Attorney General John Ashcroft has mobilized the resources of the Department of Justice to try and overturn the decision.

   As a result, Tuesday's simultaneous recital of the Pledge of Allegiance in tens of thousands of classrooms and other venues throughout the nation will remain an example of a fragile, government-instigated "unity" rather than a consensus on tolerance and individualism. Congress will likely join in at 2 PM, as it did within minutes of the Newdow ruling. With elections just weeks away, few political hopefuls can be expected to not participate in the public extravaganza, or remind students -- and everyone else -- that recitation is not mandatory.

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