As a plea to consider liberty and peace
rather than war and allegiance to the State.

 look back to our origins and reflect upon what the founders
 of our country hoped our nation would achieve.

 With these aims in our minds, we can look toward our future with a new
perspective and, hopefully, establish goals worthy of their vision.


When reading the papers and letters of Jefferson, Adams, Dr. Franklin, and others,
one is first impressed with their sense of history, both past and contemporary.

 They read and absorbed the histories of governments and peoples,
observed their successes, and analyzed their failures.

When the time came for them to design a new government
 they were determined to avoid the fatal mistakes of the past.

 They were keenly aware that here on the American continent they had
 the first opportunity to lay the foundations of democracy on unspoiled,
 unbroken ground, where land and people could grow together.



To begin this, a revolt was necessary against what had been considered
the finest government in man's history, for it had grown unresponsive
 to the people and arbitrary in its decrees.

 The people were taxed, regulated, and punished by a king and parliament
which held themselves aloof from their petitions and pleas.

 Many in the United States today feel that these conditions again exist
 between the people and their government; that again we are faced with
 taxation without real representation, that justice has become selective,
 and that moral leadership has died in America.



The colonies were as diverse as our present states, with widely differing
outlooks and customs. yet through discussion, negotiation and compromise,
they worked out a system of government employing the best ideas of
human history and avoiding many of the pitfalls.



They recorded this system on parchment, giving us our Constitution;
a document designed to guide our country in a position of world leadership,
 not through power, terror and greed, but through setting an example
 of truth, tolerance, justice, and humanity to all men.

A doctrine of love and consideration rather than hate and expediency.



Our first century was one of struggle, testing these ideas of freedom
and purifying them of most of the waste and error that had crept in.
 In the closing years of that century the nation was tempered in fire and blood,
and survived, though left with a legacy of bitterness that has lasted to this day.


The second century has not been so fortunate. It started with high hopes,
but the seeds of Hamilton's fiscal policy of close ties between big business,
 banks, and government had found fallow soil in the industrial revolution
 and had produced lush, but bitter, fruit.

 The ideals of freedom and opportunity became twisted into unlimited license
 for the powerful to take what they could while the poor went without, and
 were taxed to pay the bill.



The faith that the rest of the world had begun to build in us
started to evaporate as we succumbed to the lure of empire building.

 We, as a nation, began to swagger like Romans.

After playing a key role through two world wars in stopping would be
 world rulers, we began a policy bent toward establishing one of our own.


Now we find, that we have become little better than those we fought, using
force against force, fear against fear, and balancing terror against terror.

 We back dictators and those against their own people, feeding their graft
and corruption as long as they will allow our big business to exploit
 their resources and labor.



We have overthrown, or attempted to overthrow, popular movements of people
 attempting to achieve the same human dignity and control of their destiny
 that we did at the cost of our blood a little over two centuries ago.

Some of these peoples have modeled their constitutions after ours,
yet we don't seem to understand this; I think because our own goals
 have altered beyond recognition.



We must now make a determined, conscientious effort to turn ourselves around,
 re-establish our goals and priorities, and begin again to lead by example.



 It is a pitifully easy thing to destroy the world; the difficult
and challenging task is to preserve and enrich it.

Moral leadership is not easy; the temptation to fight error, greed, power,
and cruelty with its own weapons is strong, but it can and must be resisted.



The technology of the twentyfirst century must be bent to raising
the quality of life on this planet, not toward producing trash for
 the enrichment of a few at the expense of the many.

 Our surpluses should feed the hungry both here and abroad,
 not be used as pawns by power brokers to increase the profits
 of international cartels.

We must seek to set an example to the world, of what democracy and freedom can be,
it already has plenty of examples of what to avoid.



I would like to suggest two changes to serve as a symbolic bond
to reestablish our goals and to help keep them before our eyes in
 what is ahead of us.

Our pledge of allegiance should be changed to
the CONSTITUTION of the United States, or to its spirit,
 for it is unstained, though rather dusty from neglect.



If we pledge our allegiance to the Constitution
(rather than to the flag, which represents the government),
 we may come to reflect upon it and its meaning,
 and use its philosophy to shape our lives.

The flag that has flown so proudly at Valley Forge and on the moon
has also flown proudly at Wounded Knee, Vietnam and Iraq.

Most Americans are now well aware of that, especially
 so when asked to pledge their allegiance to it.



We had no formal national anthem until the Star Spangled Banner
was adopted almost by default by Congress in 1933.

 The navy and the army had chosen it and it was certainly appropriate for them,
 bombs and rockets signifying the dubious glory of war.
 (Is there nothing else that should represent us? )


We should be promoting a far warmer and more humane nation.
 I pray whatever creative force or being that guides our universe
may look with favor upon us and strengthen our endeavors to lead mankind,
where truth, liberty and justice truly exist for all.