Sarah Palin made a BIG (but common) mistake...

When running for Governor of Alaska in 2006, Sarah and the other candidates were asked a series of questions. These question were posted on the Eagle Forum Alaska blog site.

Question number 11: Are you offended by the phrase “Under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance? Why or why not?

Sarah Palin's answer: Not on your life. If it was good enough for the founding fathers, its good enough for me and I’ll fight in defense of our Pledge of Allegiance.

(Me shaking my head in complete awe of her ignorance)

First of all, I post this, not as a pathetic excuse as why someone shouldn't vote for her. This has nothing to do with the election. This just illustrates the extreme ignorance that not only many Americans have about their own history, but sadly illustrates the lack of any type of example of historical integrity from some of our political leaders.

I've already spelled this out somewhat in other posts, but here is just how ridiculously wrong she was in her claim that the Founding Father's wrote the Pledge of Allegiance as we know it today.

Timeline:

1836 - All the Founding Fathers have now died, making it impossible for any single one of them to have been in any way involved with the creation of the Pledge of Allegiance.

1892 - Francis Bellamy writes the Pledge of Allegiance. It reads: "I pledge allegiance to my Flag and the Republic for which it stands, one nation indivisible, with liberty and justice for all."

1892 – The word “to” is added before the word “Republic” later that same year: "I pledge allegiance to my Flag and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation indivisible, with liberty and justice for all."



1923 - The National Flag Conference called for the words "my Flag" to be changed to "the Flag of the United States". The Pledge now reads: "I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation indivisible, with liberty and justice for all."

1924 - The words, "of America" were then added, updating the Pledge 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."



1942 - The U.S. Congress officially recognized the Pledge as the official national pledge. At this time also, the hand-over-the-heart gesture was officially adopted as the proper salute. This replaced the Bellamy salute, since it had such a strong similarity to the Nazi salute.

1954 - To make a long story short, The Knights of Columbus began using the words "under God" in 1951, incorporating it into their recitation of the Pledge. Their inspiration for this was Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address. In 1954, after listening to a sermon about this very subject, President Eisenhower, who had recently been baptized a Presbyterian lit the fire under Congress to make the change. I don't find it a bit odd that also during this time, America was experiencing extreme anti-Communist hysteria fueled by McCarthyism. A joint resolution of Congress concurred with Eisenhower and he signed the bill into law on Flag Day, June 14, 1954. Now, finally the Pledge says: "I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all."

Sarah Palin was born only ten years after the words in the Pledge of Allegiance came to be as we know them today, and only twenty-two years after it became officially recognized by our government. And she said "If it was good enough for the founding fathers, its good enough for me..."

Wow.