Full circle

Fargo school board drops Pledge of Allegiance over ‘under God’ phrase

The Pledge of Allegiance was written in 1892 by a socialist named Francis Bellamy and had nothing to say about God or, for that matter, the United States. The words, "of the United States of America," were added in 1923 and "under God" — intended to poke an American thumb in the eye of those godless Commies in Russia — in 1954.

I was enrolled in a high school civics class that year. We were assigned to write essays on the "under God" phrase, for or against, and. as I recall, the class split just about evenly. I opposed it myself on constitutional grounds — the separation part. 

Now the Fargo school board has decided not to recite it before their meetings on exactly those same grounds. I imagine there may be some of my old classmates still around who are displeased by that.

I'm not.