One Nation Indivisible…

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It was good enough to beat Hitler…

Sixty years ago the United States government changed the pledge of allegiance that had defeated Hitler to include a reference to god.  This was during the height of the McCarthy witch trials.  They also added in god we trust to the currency. The following is a call from the American Humanist Association to do something about this violation of the establishment clause in the US Constitution. 10 February goes into the humanists calendar until we can replace it with the date in which this is repealed. From the American Humanists Association

Monday, Feb. 10 is the 60th anniversary of when Congress added “under God” to the Pledge of Allegiance, and state lawmakers all over the country are introducing resolutions to mark that unfortunate moment in American history. We see this is an opportunity for humanists all over the country to write letters to the editor to their local papers about this issue. Mississippi got a jump on everyone else and passed a resolution in 2012 marking the event. The New York Senate passed a resolution this week. Other states now taking up similar measures include PennsylvaniaMichiganTennessee and Idaho. If you are interested in taking part in this effort, do a quick online search for “Letter to the editor” and the name of your local paper and you’ll probably find the page with instructions at the top of the search results. It’s usually an email address and/or a web form. You can also do a quick search for “under god pledge resolution [your state name]” and see if there are stories confirming a resolution being considered in your state. It is best to keep letters to the editor short, 150 words or less. Longer submissions have a much lower chance of even being considered, let alone chosen. Below is a sample submission, but please feel free to write one of your own or change this one however you see fit.

State lawmakers all over the country are considering resolutions that praise a mistake made in 1954 when “under God” was added to the official Pledge of Allegiance. Feb. 10 marks the  60th anniversary of this regrettable action, one that tells tens of millions of non-religious Americans that they are illegitimate citizens of their own country. I hope that [your state] lawmakers reject this idea and deny support for a re-declaration that humanist [or non-religious] Americans are to be seen as inferior by everyone else.

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