Racism is the United States’s enduring, inheritable, original sin! At founding, “all men” meant only “white men.” And, after the Civil War, acceptance of the Confederate states back into the United States required zero admission of guilt and wrongdoings on their part. Thus began the white racist even more entrenched and violent Nadir era of United States racism! And their sons – to this day – still proudly wave their flag and raise weapons against the non-whites in their country!
I and countless others have served to protect this country’s Constitution, from enemies foreign and domestic, and I cannot be silent. Where white people proudly display their flag, I must take a knee! Where white people proudly stand for their racist national anthem, I must take a knee! Until white nationalism and Christian dominionism is out of our nation’s governments, I must be the patriot and take a knee!
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As of July 2021 (update), I have a new USA Pledge of Allegiance to propose. We need to get right as a nation – historically honest, ethically/morally right, and end the ghettoization of non-white citizens by State legislations in the USA!:
“I pledge allegiance to the people represented by the flag of the United States of America. And to participating in the Republic of the People for which democracy must stand. One nation, the USA, indivisible with equal liberty and justice for all – regardless of race, religion, gender, sexual and political orientation. A nation that guarantees every citizen’s right to vote without legislative restrictions.”
As a military veteran with honorable service, I refused – and still refuse(!) – to commit idolatry by pledging allegiance to a flag or to a republic of a people. That is like pledging faith in the demiGod idol of the white people’s Christian religion. As a Jew, I cannot compromise my people nor myself to pacify idolic absolutism, bigotry, and racism. So, I pledged – and still pledge(!) – allegiance to the *people* that the USA flag and Republic represents. Everyone one of our USA’s citizens – regardless of race, religion, ancestry, gender, sexual orientation, political affiliation, or lack there of on any of these divisive categories.
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SSG USA Medically Retired
When I chose to serve in military service to this country and when I reenlisted, I took a religious stance on this. No idolatry, of any kind! No idolatry for me includes no uttering of the word “God” in an oath and no giving homage directly to a flag that is the symbol of a nation of people. In others words, my pledge of allegiance and service is to “the People” of this nation, not to the people by proxy of a flag. I did my best in my non-theistic way to honor the intent of those who founded this country that we call the United States of America. They never intended this country to be a nation “under God” or to be a nation of a particular religious persuasion. Nor did they mean for us to (near) worship a symbol of our democracy, but to reverently *be in service* to a People’s democracy.
We are a nation “of the people” and “by the people.” This includes people who are other than Christian and people who are entirely not religious. This is why the pledge of allegiance for U.S. citizens deliberately did *not* make any mention of a god of any sort when it was written by a Baptist minister and socialist in 1892. As of 2016, the national pledge of allegiance has been around for 124 years, and the first 62 years of it were aligned with the European “Era of Enlightenment” (Age of Reason) social and Deist philosophies that the United States of America was constitutionally founded upon. In 1954, after the rise of the radicalized Christian-Right in national politics and, specifically, in response to the Cold War against Communism, this national pledge of allegiance was amended to include the phrase “under God,” to signify that America is a Christian nation, rather than a nation of immigrants of all religious and non-religious persuasions as the Founding Father’s of this nation believed and established. Hence, why the same “under God,” in the altered form of “in God we trust,” is also now on the paper money, though it used to not be. How many of you knew this? And, knew that legally you cannot be forced or coerced to say the pledge of allegiance while the reference to a god is still in there?
Back to what I was saying, though … As a patriot who has now served this country honorably and at great sacrifice to self, to initially make my allegiance to military service to this country, I had to alter the words a bit to make an honest and truthful sworn allegiance. To make my pledge actually sayable for me, and to keep it within the very clear historical intent of the Founding Fathers of this nation – and I quote, “one nation indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.” I was actually surprised that I was allowed to do this, knowing how politically divisive this non-theistic stance is. So, since then, I have encouraged the following alternative Pledge of Allegiance for all those who are not willing to pledge a Christian altered version (that is taught in all schools today) of the Founding Fathers’ pledge. It goes like this:
“I pledge allegiance to the people of the United States of America, and give my utmost respect to the flag under which we stand. One nation, a people united and indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”
As well, I also encourage that we as a nation of the People and by the People insist that the phrase on the paper currency be amended to read: In Democracy We Trust! Or, better yet, as those who wrote the Declaration of Independence and constitutionally founded this United States of America would have preferred: In Liberty And Justice We Trust! This is inline with the secularist intent of the “Founding Fathers” when creating this nation and its constitution and pledge. Hence, the reason for and emphasis upon Separation of Church and State.
Will you, please, rise now for the national anthem, “America the Beautiful” (a non-theist version).
O beautiful for spacious skies,
For amber waves of grain,
For purple mountain majesties
Above the fruited plain!
America! America!
Stars shed its lights on thee!
And crown thy good with nationhood
From sea to shining sea.
O beautiful for patriot dream
That sees beyond the years
Thine alabaster cities gleam
Undimmed by human tears!
America! America!
Stars shed its lights in thee!
Till selfish gain no longer stain,
The banner of the free!
Let us make our pledge without hypocrisy and without religious ideology. We are a nation “of the people” and “by the people.” This includes all the people, in all our diversity!
The Original U.S. Pledge of Allegiance (1892 – 1923): “I pledge allegiance to my Flag and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”
Amended national Pledge of Allegiance pre-1954 (1923 – 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.”
The United States of America was born, originated, and founded as a secularist nation within this world. Maybe you weren’t taught this in grade school or middle school or, even, high school. Maybe you had to go to college to learn this and, maybe, even here you didn’t learn about this. If you weren’t, here is the secularist stance for this nation by three of its most notable originators:
“I believe in one God, and no more; and I hope for happiness beyond this life. I do not believe in the creed professed by the Jewish church, by the Roman church, by the Greek church, by the Turkish church, by the Protestant church, nor by any church that I know of. My own mind is my own church. All national institutions of churches, whether Jewish, Christian or Turkish, appear to me no other than human inventions, set up to terrify and enslave mankind, and monopolize power and profit.” – Thomas Paine, 1794, from his pamphlet “Age of Reason”.
Thomas Paine is the English immigrant whose 1776 pamphlet “Common Sense” inspired the American and French revolutions for democratic independence. – “Europe, and not England, is the parent country of America. This new world hath been the asylum for the persecuted lovers of civil and religious liberty from every part of Europe. Hither they have fled, not from the tender embraces of the mother, but from the cruelty of the monster; and it is so far true of England, that the same tyranny which drove the first emigrants from home, pursues their descendants still.”
“Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between man and his god, that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship, that the legitimate powers of government reach actions only, and not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their “legislature” should “make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,” thus building a wall of separation between church and State. Adhering to this expression of the supreme will of the nation in behalf of the rights of conscience, I shall see with sincere satisfaction the progress of those sentiments which tend to restore to man all his natural rights, convinced he has no natural right in opposition to his social duties.” – Thomas Jefferson, January 1 1802
Thomas Jefferson created the Jefferson Bible, which is the life and teachings of the “human” Jesus of the Christian Bible, minus all supernatural references. He also borrowed from an Italian ‘Era of Enlightenment’ activist friend the concept of “all men are created equal” and that “they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights”, which is found in the U.S. Declaration of Independence. “Creator”, in this case, refers to the “God” of religious *Deism* which had taken root in Europe with the rise of scientific reasoning as the litmus test for determining immutable “natural laws” that govern reality.
“Allowing rights and immunities of citizenship. It is now no more that toleration is spoken of, as if it were by the indulgence of one class of people, that another enjoyed the exercise of their inherent natural rights. For happily the Government of the United States, which gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance requires only that they who live under its protection should demean themselves as good citizens, in giving it on all occasions their effectual support.” – George Washington, 1790, to Newport, Rhode Island’s first Jewish congregation
George Washington needs no introduction, yes? But, wait a minute, how well do you actually know his beliefs about life and about country? And how well do you know about his actions to perpetuate an independent secularist nation on the American continent, the nation that has become known as the United States of America?
“The phrase “separation of church and state” is commonly used to denote an expansive interpretation of the clause in the First Amendment to the United States Constitution that says: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion.” In many decisions since 1947, the Supreme Court has held that the Establishment Clause means much more than merely preventing the government from favoring one religion over other religions. For example, in the 1968 case Lemon v. Kurtzman, the court said that the Establishment Clause means that any law must have a secular purpose, must not primarily advance or inhibit religion, and must not excessively entangle government and religion.” – Michael Prival
It is highly democratic and patriotic – and quite legal – to sit out reciting the Pledge of Allegiance until this theistic religious phrase is removed. A phrase never intended by this nation’s founders. But, more importantly, we need to return to the intent of the constitution and, just as importantly, actively seek for and protect the democratic civil liberties of every citizen in this country. Doing this begins with something as simple as this, making a public stance of being for the People by the People.
Joseph Tsefanyahu Farkasdi United States Army, Retired SSG, Section Sergeant 92W30 Overseas Service 3 Yrs 11 Mos
As someone who has made the choice to serve this country in armed uniformed service, as someone who has honorably fulfilled his duty under this choice, to preserve and protect the rights given us as citizens under the United States Constitution, I am naturally very concerned about over-stepping violations of these rights by government legislation. As citizens of the United States, we are an example setter for the rest of the world on democratic national governance and way-of-life. There should never be a time in which we allow religion to be part and parcel with our civil affairs, per the constitution, and there should never be a time we worship our flag or our national anthem. They are simply symbols that represent who we are and, when they no longer represent who we are as a pluralistic nation of citizens, then these symbols need to be changed to better reflect before the world who we are as a nation. As a military veteran, I stand behind the rights of those who challenge the inherent racism and nation worship that is connected to our representative national symbols. They are being patriotic, to make a vocal stand for a better more indivisible and more united country – that stands on social justice and truth and reconciliation within the United States of America!
As a reminder of our nation’s stand for liberty – “One Nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all” – let us from now on sing only the rarely heard and mostly unknown fifth stanza of this nation’s national anthem, this verse and this verse only from now on:
“When our land is illumined with Liberty’s smile,
If a foe from within strike a blow at her glory,
Down, down with the traitor that dares to defile
The flag of her stars and the page of her story!
By the millions unchained who our birthright have gained,*
We will keep her bright blazon forever unstained!
And the Star-Spangled Banner in triumph shall wave
While the land of the free is the home of the brave.”
– fifth stanza that was added to the Star Spangled Banner by Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. in indignation over the start of the American Civil War, and that was sung during this period by the Northern Unionists fighting for abolition and against Southern secession.
*-the new citizens by the freeing of chattel slaves
The very existence of this modern United States of America, from the chattel Slavery age to the convict leasing Industrial age to the school-to-prison pipeline modern High-Tech age, we owe significantly to the resilience and intelligence of our nation’s black Americans. It is black Americans who did the majority building of this country with their enslaved sweat and tears and, for those who’ve been “freemen” in history, with their publicly unrecognized, but well documented, creative intelligence. We also need to start respecting for the first time in U.S. history the First Nations of the land, the ones we violently took these lands from over the course of 397 years. #NativeLiveMatter and #BlackLivesMatter very much in the United States of America. So do #MuslismLivesMatter and #LatinoLivesMatter in the United States. And, while we’re at it, let’s not forget the very significant creative and cultural contributions that #LGBTQ lives and #EmpoweringWomen’s lives have made in this “land of the free and home of the brave.” It’s time for white society America to embrace this and embrace #RestorativeJustice and #TruthandReconciliation in the United States of America!
8 Comments
Joseph T Farkasdi · September 24, 2017 at 3:34 pm
As a U.S. military veteran, I say #takeaknee until racism is honestly addressed in the United States, until all citizens regardless of skin color or place of birth are treated the same within this nation. It is an act of patriotism to do so. We are “one nation indivisible”, with a people’s constitution. The legacy of white evangelical supremacy must come to an end – if we really want to #maga.
#standfortheusflag to show support for our nation, but #takeaknee during the national anthem in support of #socialjustice. #alllivesmatter only when #truthandreconciliation matters in the United States of America. Do not worship the flag, Uncle Sam is a myth, we are not all created white #inhisimage #inhislikeness.
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We are “one nation indivisible, with liberty and justice for all”, and only in truly embracing this can we #maga.
#TakeaKnee during the national anthem until racism in the United States is honestly addressed.
#BoycottthePledge of Allegiance until the 1950’s religious addition to the pledge is removed from the pledge.
Legal director for American Humanist Society explains the legality and appropriateness in taking a knee.
https://www.facebook.com/americanhumanist/videos/10159577217785195/?hc_ref=ARQQtkieoqFWlHsZnNuHH2b0dS0IUAEGfKNM_A048ZElA_A9zLhJ6ulkttFx4eRZdtY&pnref=story
Since the Civil Rights Movement of the 50’s and 60’s, white evangelical citizens of the United States have been trying to resurrect and institute the beliefs of the Southern Confederacy in the United States. It started with the KKK and Christian-Right and are, these days, now known as Neo-Nazis and Alt-Right. Politically, they’ve never been so close to their goals, as they are with the present white supremacist in office.
Joseph T Farkasdi · October 3, 2017 at 12:14 pm
The judge asked, “Do you solemnly swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you God?” And, with a smile on my face and a nod of my head, I responded, “I do solemnly swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth… There is no God.” Boy, you should have seen the look of consternation on everyone’s faces! … Life as a non-religionist living in a U.S. confederate state. Come on, it’s the 21st Century already, time to grow up!
“God is an imaginary deity that humans have constructed to absolve themselves of direct responsibility for their actions and inactions, and to bring some sense of explanation to what is presently beyond their grasp of understanding.” – JTF
because we need to learn #maga #inhisimage #inhislikeness
#alllivesmatter only when #truthandreconciliation has been established in the United States of America
Joseph T Farkasdi · December 22, 2017 at 4:25 pm
“Coffee Party USA moves forward with confidence that this republic’s democracy is broken, that The People can fix it, and that it will be civility and reason that will win the day over divisive rhetoric and talking points.
Coffee Party continues its commitment to serving our members and supporters by offering: fact based civil discourse on social media; opportunities to gather together; and targeted actions, “on the pages and in the streets”.
We believe that we share common goals as a people. We all want to live in safe communities with access to well-paid jobs that will allow us to provide for our families, help us secure a decent education for our children, and allow us to access adequate health care. We call upon the American people to transcend the hyper-partisanship that is so common today and move toward organizing communities around the mutual desire for ongoing, responsible civic engagement.
We understand that we must act boldly to not only break the cycle of corruption, but also recommit to the concept of a government of, by and for the people. We are the government. The government is us. We want to fix the problems in our government, not turn against the idea of government.”
Incite Civility & Reason – The Coffee Party USA
http://www.coffeepartyusa.com/
Coffee Party USA is a grassroots, transpartisan movement that aims to restore the principles of our republic and spirit of a representative democracy in America. It started on Facebook as a popular fan page in January 2010 and has since blossomed into a national 501c4 non-profit organization with a network of nearly a million people.
#MAGA by engaging in citizen ownership and responsibility for government. A representative democracy needs to represent the entire population, our shared common goals and values, not just the loudest ranting minority political voice or the extremism of partisan talking points! Do you believe that we are #inhisimage, whether deist or theist? Then, show that you do, by reigning in the divisive language and attitudes that only seeks to move our nation further away from our democratic origins. #CoffeeParty #Indivisible #Resist
Joseph T Farkasdi · March 15, 2018 at 11:00 am
What is patriotism? Patriotism means a love for one’s country. A country doesn’t exist without the people who live in it and support it. So, patriotism is a love for the people who make a country possible. In America, patriotism is a love for Americans. Who are Americans, those who live in and support the United States? This linked video answers this question truthfully and succinctly – watch it!
#LoveKnowsNoBoundaries #LoveKnowsNoReligion #WeAreAmerica Let’s #maga and less falsely #inhisimage #inhislikeness by embracing real love and patriotism in the #USA.
Patriotism. What is it?
https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=1691835861068286&id=1528980567353817
Love Knows No Boundaries
Joseph T Farkasdi · May 2, 2018 at 10:53 pm
Had to share this with the school’s principal this evening:
Dear Principal /////,
Now that I’ve settled down for the night, allow me to clarify my previous email this evening. The school function was the ///// Junior High Athletic Celebration, Wednesday, May 2nd, from 5:30 PM to 7 PM. Your ///// High School head coach led the event.
I understand that your head coach has been with this school for a long time, is very well respected, and I have no desire to see him get in trouble over this. But, at the same time, if I don’t defend my right and the right of others to be free of religion in publicly-shared places, who will and when will they? So, for all’s benefit, please take the clarifying words here to heart.
Ask yourself honestly: how many complaints do you think you would have gotten, given this neighborhood, if the head coach had a Muslim student come up front, chant from the Koran, and say the Islamic god’s name? Just because most parents, being Christian or sympathetic to Christianity, had no problem with a student being called up to give prayer and invoke the name of the Christian idol, this does not make it right to do so in a “public school”. It violates the 1st Amendment right of people who practice a different religion, those who are non-theist or not religious, and those who are secularist in their leaning when a public school coach engages in a school-sponsored Christian religious prayer in this way.
As someone who honors no human imagined “God”, how do you think I felt as an attending parent when this public school athletics award function was turned into a church function at its very start? Do you think I felt included and welcomed after that? This never should have happened and, in all fairness to every parent and their school attending children, I expect it never to happen again at ///// ISD public school functions. I hope you understand that I am only asking that the equal rights of everyone under our nation’s Constitution be respectfully observed. Thank you.
Sincerely,
Joseph Farkasdi
“The U.S. Supreme Court agreed, ruling 8-1 (Engel v. Vitale, 1962) that school-sponsored prayer violated the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.”
Joseph T Farkasdi · May 3, 2018 at 1:34 pm
Here is the school’s response to my letter above, and my reply to them:
“Mr. Farkasdi,
Thank you for sharing. I will look into the situation that you are referencing. A teacher should not be leading a prayer at a school function. However, as a defender of the constitution myself, I am sure you agree that the individual rights of a student to pray or not to pray is not something that we should or can control. If upon looking into this, I find that the Coach led or coerced the student to pray, we will definitely take corrective action.”
“Ms. /////,
Thank you for your response. I hope that “corrective” action means staff-wide “education” and the expectation that law be followed. That’s all I am asking. It does not bother me at all, if a coach/teacher offers to have a prayer service on the side for those interested before, during, or after a public school function. But, it is unacceptable for a teacher to have a student come up front to give a prayer before the start of a public school function, which is what happened. Hence, my need to inform you of this school-led prayer. It is important that we be daily reminded of the diversity of citizens which make our nation great, and ensure that everyone’s rights under law are equally respected. “One nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all,” was and I hope remains the ideal this nation was founded on.
Sincerely,
Joseph Farkasdi”
Yes, anti-clerical like our nation’s founders I am, therefore a secularist I will be. Rise up, citizens, free this nation from the stranglehold of #maga and #inhisimage radical ideology! Our nation’s democracy depends upon this.
Joseph T Farkasdi · May 22, 2018 at 12:29 am
Said it better than I’ve been able to say it!:
“The Trump administration did not rise, prima facie, like Venus on a half shell from the sea. Donald Trump is the result of a long process of political, cultural and social decay. He is a product of our failed democracy. The longer we perpetuate the fiction that we live in a functioning democracy, that Trump and the political mutations around him are somehow an aberrant deviation that can be vanquished in the next election, the more we will hurtle toward tyranny. The problem is not Trump. It is a political system, dominated by corporate power and the mandarins of the two major political parties, in which we (“the People”) don’t count.”
Thanks to #maga and #inhisimage #inhislikeness radical ideology in governance, entrenched partisan extremism disrupting government, and corporate lobbying influence we are now almost there! The collapse is coming! Unfortunately, we can’t prepare for this, really, at this point. The Founders of this nation would actually be surprised to see how long their expected short-lived democratic experiment managed to survive, before what they warned would happen finally began to come true. Keep church and state separate, keep the People highly educated in ‘reason’ and in ‘science’, and form policies for the good of the people (not political parties or business interests) is what they insisted was the only way to ensure a democratic government! Have enough of us listened, or been bought into indoctrination?
The Coming Collapse
https://www.commondreams.org/views/2018/05/21/coming-collapse
It is impossible for any doomed population to grasp how fragile the decayed financial, social and political system is on the eve of implosion.
Joseph T Farkasdi · July 2, 2018 at 5:21 pm
Two days from now is “Independence Day”, now known as “Indivisible Day”. But, what exactly is this day that we celebrate every 4th of July? Are you sure that you know? Historically and accurately?
It is the day we commemorate the Declaration of Independence, wherein the 13 colonies of Colonial British America seceded from Britain and declared themselves a new nation – the United States of America (July 2, 1776). Why? Because, the Founders of this nation were defying monarchical/Christian rule over them and unfair taxation of the 13 colonies by Britain. Soon after this secession, Noah Webster would invent American English to replace the British English being spoken, to ensure that the United States takes a different and separate historical path from Europe. But, wait … there’s more! …
The Founders of this nation, almost all of them college graduates with powerful elitist positions within society and most of them multi-lingual, *invented* the United States of America as a secularist nation of *constitutional law*, unbridled by religious theology and religious laws. A United States of America that was begun by and maintained by the People, the citizens, of this new nation, through their constitutional rule of law and representative government – regardless of their personal or communal religious beliefs or the lack thereof. The Founders of the United States constitutionally enshrined a complete separation between religion and civil governance – that the two should never be mixed together for the sake of our nation’s survival.
“The second day of July, 1776, will be the most memorable epoch in the history of America. I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated by succeeding generations as the great anniversary festival. It ought to be commemorated as the day of deliverance, by solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires, and illuminations, from one end of this continent to the other, from this time forward forever more.” – John Adams to his wife Abigail, July 3, 1776
“…to God Almighty”? Which “God”, exactly, was John Adams referring to? The Deist “God” of the 18th century European Enlightenment and United States Founders? Or the Theist “God” of modern 20th century politicized Christianity? Apologetic politicians would have us believe he spoke of the “God” of any religious “faith”. But, evangelical Christians would have it be clear that any reference to “God” by the Founders was a reference to their “God” in human flesh, an idol (forbidden by Torah, aka Old Testament). This would exclude the “God” of Jews, Hindus, Muslims, Buddhists, and other religions, then. And, further, it clearly ignores the position of Deists and Atheists who also have always resided in this once truly secularist nation of ours (for most of its history, until 1941 onward with the formation of the ahistorical Christian Right political movement).
#IndependenceDay #4thofJuly #IndivisibleDay
Indivisible Day, July 4, http://secularseasons.org/july/indivisible_day.html
Indivisible Day Proclamation
Whereas: The unique features of this nation at its foundation was its establishment of a secular Constitution that separated government from religion – something never done before; and
Whereas: Our secular constitution has enabled people of all world views to coexist in harmony, undivided by sectarian strife; and
Whereas: President James Madison made clear the importance of maintaining this harmony when he said, “The purpose of separation of church and state is to keep forever from these shores the endless strife that has soaked the soil of Europe in blood for centuries”; and
Whereas: The diversity of our people requires mutual respect and equal protection for all our citizens, including minority groups, if we are to remain “One nation, indivisible”; and
Whereas: It is the unfettered diversity of ideas and world views that have made our nation the strongest and most productive in the world; and
Whereas: Eternal vigilance must be maintained to guard against those who seek to stifle ideas, establish a narrow orthodoxy, and divide our nation along arbitrary lines of race, ethnicity, and religious belief or non-belief.
Let’s #maga by returning to our constitutional roots and to the civil liberties guaranteed – through their carefully chosen words – to *all our citizens* by our United States founders. No more white-ly #inhisimage! #Resist