28 December—Today is Pledge of Allegiance Day, sometimes called National Pledge of Allegiance Day. It commemorates the date in 1945 when Congress adopted the Pledge of Allegiance into the United States Flag Code.

The Flag Code is the federal law that sets forth guidelines for the appearance and display of the American flag by private citizens. Just private citizens. The guidelines specify how and where the flag should be displayed, as well as details for half-staff display.

In addition to specifics about the Pledge of Allegiance, the Flag Code also suggests appropriate conduct while watching performance of the National Anthem.

Note that the Flag Code comprises guidelines, suggestions, and protocols—it’s purely advisory, containing no explicit enforcement mechanisms. And that’s as it should be.

Moreover, the Supreme Court has ruled with surprising consistency that federal, state, and municipal laws to prevent and/or punish disparagement, disrespectful display, desecration, or other disturbing treatment and misuse of the flag are violations of the First and Fourteenth Amendments. That’s also as it should be and should continue to be.

It may—it does—disturb lots of people to see the flag dishonored and desecrated. But the very fact that the flag can be dishonored and desecrated is a function of as well as a tribute to the Constitution—just like the right to display flags and ribbons without unreasonable restriction in public places, which, however, is too often ignored by autocratic local governments.

Back to the Pledge of Allegiance. (If I’m still around on 3 March, remind me to celebrate National Anthem Day.) The Pledge was written by Francis Bellamy and first published anonymously in The Youth’s Companion on 8 September 1892 to celebrate the quatercentenary [sic—it’s not quartercentenary] of that nasty bugger Columbus’s discovery of America when he landed in the Bahamas.

The Pledge has been modified through the years: Bellamy’s “I pledge allegiance to my Flag and the Republic for which it stands, one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all” subtly became “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.”

Then, on Flag Day in 1954, enthusiastically and opportunistically jumping on the anti-communist nationwide juggernaut, Congress added the words “under God” because the reds were known to be godless. Grown-ups—i.e., old farts like me—may remember that President Eisenhower added yet another word, personalizing the Pledge: “I pledge my allegiance,” he said.

Ike also said “nucular” when he meant “nuclear.” But he was a nice guy, so we didn’t mind. (Ike isn’t the only POTUS to mispronounce “nuclear.” Willy Clinton and George Bush Junior are living proponents of nuclear cacoepy. So is Jimmy Carter—and he was a nucular engineer.)

The original so-called palm-out salute that accompanied the Pledge in the Flag Code was created by James B. Upham in 1892 and was formally known as the flag salute. But Frank Bellamy promoted it, so it naturally became known as the Bellamy Salute. It was used until Congress amended the Flag Code on 22 December 1942.

You can see in the pictures why the Bellamy Salute was discarded. Surprising it took our heroic whores in Washington a whole year to do it . . .