"Indivisible, with liberty and justice for all"

The first few sentences descibe my experience, but about a decade earlier. From Caitlin Flanagan, "The Indivisible America":

.... Each week there was a different Pledge of Allegiance monitor, and that person walked importantly to the front of the room and stood beneath the flag. The monitor’s hand was placed (more or less) over the monitor’s heart, a signal for all of us to look alive. A single clap rang out as 22 small hands clapped (more or less) over 22 hearts. The monitor started, and we all joined in.

We looked at the flag and said the Pledge, and it was similar to saying prayers you’ve learned by heart. Any single day might not have an effect, but day after day, the words soaked into me. They taught me that I was an American; that America was a good place; and that the flag—our flag—was to be respected.

This wasn’t taking place in some deep red state; this was Berkeley, California, in 1968. ....

People often felt then the way we sometimes feel now: that the country would unravel altogether, victim of more hatred than one nation could stand. That assumption was then as it is now: juvenile. America is good at hanging on until better days come around. It’s written throughout our history. ....

The first version of the Pledge of Allegiance was written in 1885 by George Thatcher Balch, who had been a Union officer himself and went on to write a book about teaching patriotism to children. Seven years later, it was revised and promoted by a Baptist minister named Francis Bellamy. Why would this weird little sentence (6-year-olds pledging themselves to the state?) have seemed so important that it quickly spread to American public schools? Because it was written a few decades after the end of the Civil War, and it included the word that so few children understand but that everyone who said it each morning remembers all of their lives: indivisible.

When I see our flag flying, at the post office or the library or any kind of civic building, it means that America is still steady, that the world is still in its place.

I grew up around plenty of people who believed the flag’s presence was oppressive, possibly even fascist. But the time to worry isn’t when you see the American flag flying at parks and DMVs and hospitals. The time to worry is when you don’t see any American flags at all. .... (more)

The illustration by N.C. Wyeth is from a 1918 schoolbook. I'll fly my flag on the Fourth because of the principles expressed in the words of the Pledge:

"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."

Caitlin Flanagan, "The Indivisible America," The Free Press, July 2, 2026.