Tuesday, June 15, 2010

Red Skelton's Pledge

On the January 1969 broadcast of his television show Red Skelton spoke of the way his teacher, Mr. Laswell, taught the Pledge of Allegiance to the class. Mr. Laswell felt the class was repeating the words by rote and he wanted the students to think about what they were saying. The words of the Pledge remained the same, but each word of phrase was explained. For example: "I -- me, an individual, a committee of one"; "Allegiance -- my love and my devotion". Skelton ended the monologue with his opinion that "Under God" should remain in the pledge. The show received 20,000 letters in response. I had no idea.

We have a DVD of The Red Skelton Show!
You can read the complete text of the monologue in the Des Moines Tribune, February 20, 1969 on page 16.
Graphic source; eLibrary

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