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© Dave Racer ~ PO Box 600160 ~ St. Paul, MN. ~ 55106 ~ Webmaster

How "under God" got added to the Pledge of Allegiance

Flag Day – 1954: In a sermon about the Pledge of Allegiance, heard by President Dwight Eisenhower. This entreaty served as the stimulus for adding the words “under God” to the Pledge.

"You are a miracle of God." Once again I was able to write these words on a graduation card to one of my children. Daniel Joseph Racer had never heard his mother's story until then.

Rosanne, my wife of 30 years this August, is an only child, raised in a family which neither particularly valued the life of the unborn nor cared much that she raise a large family - they were ambivalent. She gave birth to Deborah, our first child, in June of 1969, and soon thereafter began contemplating sterilization. Read Editorial

An educated citizenry is required for our government to succeed. A successful government is required to maintain order. If we desire order to be maintained while maximizing individual liberty, we must have a government under the control of an educated citizenry.

These ideas are what drove our federal and state founders to justify the use of public funds to educate students in grades Kindergarten through twelfth. In poll after poll, Americans have shown their overwhelming support for continuing this mandate. But a significant number of America's children are prohibited from receiving the direct benefit of taxpayer support because their parents choose to use alternative education systems other than public schools. Read Editorial

We bought a home computer just before Christmas 1997. How my children developed a knack for computer internet trekking so quickly I do not understand.

Like other parents, I wondered if our computer would threaten my children's sense of decency and modesty; if it would challenge their commitment to chastity.

When I was growing up, a dirty picture was a woman in a bikini. A 1990s Sports Illustrated "Swimsuit Edition" is pornographic by 1950's standards. We did not have to cope with full frontal nudity in magazines or on movie screens nor sexual acts performed live on computer screens.