[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 115 (Wednesday, September 14, 2005)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1837]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

[[Page E1837]]


                      ON THE PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. NICK J. RAHALL, II

                            of west virginia

                    in the house of representatives

                     Wednesday, September 14, 2005

  Mr. RAHALL. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to affirm that we are one 
Nation under God. For over 225 years the moral fiber of this Nation has 
been built not upon the law of man, but rather upon the law of God.
  The roots of the Pledge of Allegiance go back to Francis Bellamy, a 
Baptist minister who wrote the original Pledge in August 1892. It was 
still an ``unofficial'' pledge until June 22, 1942, when the United 
States Congress included the ``Pledge to the Flag'' in the United 
States Flag Code. On December 28, 1945, the Pledge to the Flag received 
its official title as our Nation's Pledge of Allegiance.
  The last change in the Pledge of Allegiance occurred on June 14, 1954 
(Flag Day), when Congress added the words, ``under God,'' to the Pledge 
of Allegiance.
  Although today, U.S. District Judge Lawrence Karlton ruled that the 
pledge's reference to one nation ``under God'' violates 
schoolchildren's right to be ``free from a coercive requirement to 
affirm God.'' Judge Karlton then issued a restraining order preventing 
the recitation of the pledge at three separate elementary schools where 
the plaintiff's children attended school. Will this judge also take 
away American schoolchildren's milk money emblazoned with the words, 
``In God We Trust?'' Will this judge deny our schoolchildren hearing 
the ringing words of our Declaration of Independence, which intones the 
Almighty throughout this sacred document?
  A restraining order to prevent children from reaffirming their faith 
in God and Country? How absurd! Can you imagine the police storming an 
elementary school and handcuffing a 9-year-old child for uttering 
``under God''?
  President Eisenhower said at the time, ``In this way we are 
reaffirming the transcendence of religious faith in America's heritage 
and future; in this way we shall constantly strengthen those spiritual 
weapons which forever will be our country's most powerful resource in 
peace and war.''
  As President Eisenhower stated, God is America's most powerful 
resource. In his presence, we remain attentive of the character and 
spirit of our Nation, and we are determined to fashion a better and 
brighter future for the generations that follow. Only under the 
watchful eye of God can all we hope for be accomplished and all we 
dream of come true.
  For 58 years, schoolchildren and billions of men and women across 
this Nation have gazed upon our Flag, the Star Spangled Banner, and 
proudly recited their pledge to their home and the greatest Nation on 
Earth, and I can think of no better way to begin each and every day, as 
we do in the House of Representatives, with these 31 words.
  As an editorial from the Register-Herald, of my hometown of Beckley, 
West Virginia, best summed up last year:

       Children cannot be compelled to recite the Pledge or even 
     listen to it, if they don't wish to.
       The Supreme Court will sooner or later have to delete the 
     phrase or else rule in its defense, an action requiring only 
     this: respect for constitutional language and a grain of 
     common sense.

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