A better pledge would emphasize ‘for all’

Brooklyn: While I agree with Voicer F.T. Connolly that the current Republican Party is totally corrupt in its loyalty to the most disgusting president in our history, I feel I must clear up some misconceptions about the Pledge of Allegiance.

Yes, I also am a Boomer who attended public schools in the 1950s, in NYC. We said the pledge every day, but in the form that it was originally written. It was written in 1892 by Francis Bellamy, who happened to be a Christian minister, yet he intentionally left out any mention of God. Although a few little changes were made over the years, the main change was made in 1954 when the Republicans in Congress and President Dwight Eisenhower added “under God” to offset the scare of the ungodly Soviet Union and to please the right-wing movement led by the Knights of Columbus.

Well, there is no more Soviet Union, and we can see how the right-wing movement has changed over the years to being a foe of the freedoms and rights spelled out in our Constitution. It’s mandatory in public schools to have a daily pledge in all but four states (Florida, Texas, Pennsylvania and Utah). So it may be time for a future Congress and an uncorrupted president to restore the pledge.

Brooklyn: When I was a child, I couldn’t understand why everyone didn’t get to vote in the primary elections (“N.Y. Democrats suppress voting rights,” op-ed, Sept. 30). Then my mother explained it to me: It’s like being a member of a club. If you don’t belong to that club, you don’t get to vote. If we have open........

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