I agree that loyalty oaths are frightening things, especially when coupled with religion. My heart goes out to the children being brainwashed by these fanatics.

Anne Jackson said,

August 2, 2007 at 2:50 pm

Texas IS God’s country. I kid, I kid. But as a girl-grown-up Texan, I didn’t realize most other states DIDNT have POA’s until I moved to Kansas when I was 21, and had a friend move from KS to TX. He refused (passoinately) to make his daughter say the Texas pledge.

Now back in Tx, I still relish a bit in my Texas Pride (it really is something you are brainwashed with in the school systems but once you drink the koolaid, you can’t stop!)…so, my question as a Texan is when Texas secedes from the USA, will you still care?

I still kid.

I may be in WV now, and I may have lived in Louisiana before then, and in Oklahoma before that, but I am Texas-born, and I have lived from one end of the state to the other.

I am Houstonian by birth, and I’ve also lived in Marshall and in Pampa. I also grew up saying the Texas pledge… back before I stopped being superstitious.

My accent still gives me away… I continue to be pegged by traveling or transplanted fellow Texans, in spite of not having lived in Texas since 1980. I visited Gilley’s before the Urban Cowboy movie (and before Gilley’s burned down). I still like boots and hats, though I don’t wear them around here because then I’d really stick out like a sore thumb. At weddings I prefer to dance the Cotton-Eyed Joe over the Chicken Dance. And I still feel like a Texan… I long to be back in the Lone Star State in spite of the flaws of her overabundant religious zealots.

I know exactly what you mean when you talk about that Texas Pride being so deeply engrained within your being. And I still cannot escape that Texas Pride. I find it totally ironic how my Texas Pride actually clashes with itself when it comes to my views on religion. It is that Texas Pride that causes me to bow up stubbornly with fists clenched and jaw set against doing something I am in disagreement with (Remember the Alamo).
Reading your post has brought out that homesickness, again…

“Most Texans do not need to say this new version of the pledge in order to be either patriotic or religious,” said Barry Lynn, executive director of Americans United for the Separation of Church and State. “This is the kind of politicking of religion that disturbs many Americans, including those who are deeply religious.”

I agree. this is ridculous.

Whether or not the pledge is required in schools seems to vary according to local and individual preferences. There is only one public school that I know of in our area where the pledge is said regularly,

I do not have any allegiance to the flag. Nor does my loyalty lie with the republic for which it stands. My loyalty is to my fellow citizens- not the government, republic, confederacy, state, etc. At best, the government is a necessary evil- it earns loyalty insofar as it behaves itself.

I also do not appreciate the grim irony- a public school mandated loyalty pledge that congratulates us on our liberties.

The original Pledge was written by a baptist minister and did not contain the “under god” part. The knights of columbus (all male Catholic group) lobbied congress to get “under god” added.