As a child, my school day began with standing and facing our Flag ("boys and girls, let's stand for the pledge"). With my right hand held over my heart, I recited The Pledge of Allegiance with my classmates in unison with cadence. As a young girl, you do what your teacher tells you to do. Reciting the Pledge daily made it easy to memorize. It became an honor as I learned more about history and wars. With a family full of veterans, including patriots, it became emotional. Just as The Star-Spangled Banner, our national anthem, brings a tear to my eyes, it took maturing to understand the great significance of both. President Eisenhower, in 1954, asked Congress to add "under God" to respond to the communist threat. It's funny how we are in the same dilemma again, but no additional words are needed. We have thirty-one perfect words. Together spoken aloud, they are magical.

Our country is slacking. We are not teaching our children about patriotism. We are letting athletes and celebrities dictate to our little ones. The leadership in our country at this time is abysmal and promotes division. Our military presence in the world is weak. It once was an honor to enlist and serve, and now it seems like a place for free education. Freedom is not free. The United States is indeed a melting pot, and immigrants from far and wide settled here. When you enter the United States legally, you break ties with the country you left. Once a citizen, you pledge (or promise) to honor our laws, which includes honoring our Flag. You could think of the Flag as Americans, as a symbolic gesture to all that have served to keep our freedoms, your freedoms, as well as the liberty of future generations. Present day, we are fighting to keep our land safe. With open borders, the enemy is amongst us. We need to strengthen our military and lock down our borders, allowing immigration through a vetted legal process that is in place (of course, we can improve the process). Weak leaders leave America at significant risk.

Thinking about the chaos we are in, I looked at the wording of the Pledge. Read with me the Pledge as a whole, then as individual words, and then as a whole once more. Relive your childhood for a moment and put yourself back in the classroom. Smell the chalk, the glue paste, and the cigar boxes for pencils (for the record, I hated cigar smoke but loved my father's used cigar boxes) and bring back the sensory memory of a time when everything mattered. Showing up mattered. Grades mattered. Scores mattered. Recess mattered. Making lifelong friends mattered. The FLAG mattered, just as she does today. Stay aware of the weaponized empathy running rampant in America. With a love of country, we stand and pay our respects to our Flag and military. We are one Nation, under God, indivisible. Those who choose not to stand are dividers and traitors and don't deserve the freedoms the Flag affords them.

Indulge me by reciting it out loud.

"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."

The Pledge of Allegiance, word by word:

[I] me, a citizen of the USA

[Pledge] a promise

[allegiance] loyalty

[to] expressing motion in the direction of

[the] one particular thing

[Flag] a small piece of cloth attached at one edge to a pole

[of] expressing the relationship between a part and a whole

[the] one particular thing

[United] joined together for a common purpose

[States] a nation considered as an organized under one government

[of] expressing the relationship between a part and a whole

[America] the American continent, short for the United States

[and] used to connect words, to be taken jointly

[to] expressing motion in the direction of

[the] one particular thing

[Republic] the power is held by the people through representatives

[for] indicating the place something is going to or toward

[which] referring to something previously mentioned

[it] thing previously mentioned

[stands] holding and remaining valid

[one] single, just one

[Nation] a large body of people united

[under] protecting through

[God] the creator, supreme being

[indivisible] unable to be divided

[with] accompanied by

[liberty] the state of being free

[and] used to connect words, to be taken jointly

[justice] administering the law with fairness, to make right

[for] indicating the place something is going to or toward

[all] the whole group of people, everyone without exception

"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."