The LuLac Edition #30, June 14th, 2006

FLAG DAY, JUNE 14TH, 2006...........On this day when we celebrate the U.S. Flag, let's take a look at the various versions of the Pledge of Allegiance as well as the words of the Star Spangled Banner.


THE PLEDGE
1892 to 1923:"I pledge allegiance to my Flag and the Republic for which it stands: one Nation indivisible, with Liberty and Justice for all."
1923 to 1954:"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."
1954 to Present:"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 ANTHEM
Francis Scott Key, a young poet-lawyer, witnessed the bombardment of Fort McHenry while under British guard on an American truce ship in the Patapsco River. Seeing his country's flag still flying over the Fort the next morning, he was moved to pen these immortal lines:

O say, can you see, by the dawn's early light,
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming?
Whose broad stripes and bright stars, through the perilous fight,
O'er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming!
And the rockets's red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there:
O say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.

UPCOMING: THE IMMIGRATION ISSUE AND ASSESSING REASSESSMENTS.