I'm sorry, this is really arbitrary. This is especially arbitrary for those of you who don't work in a school and hear this every single day, but it's just getting on my nerves so I have to vent it. Here's how most people say the pledge of allegiance:
"I pledge allegiance (pause) to the flag (pause)of the United States of America (pause)(pause) and to the republic (pause) for which it stands (pause) one nation (pause) under God (pause) indivisible (pause) with liberty (pause) and justice for all."
Dude, seriously, this is very annoying. And, in my opinion, it takes all of the spirit out of saying the pledge every single day when it's said in such a meaningless fashion. The pledge is one sentence, it should sound like one sentence. It's also pretty packed with ideas in that one sentence, so its meaning should be clear. Here's my suggestion:
"I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, (pause) and to the republic for which it stands, (pause) one nation, under God, indivisible, (pause) with liberty and justice for all"
That's where the natural breaks of the sentence are. Then we don't lose the ideas in the pledge. I need this to be part of Barack Obama's change campaign.
4 comments:
Holy shit! I always thought it was ....."invisible(pause) with liberty (pause) and justice for all."
I think the pauses are there because the sentence is long, a run-on, and doesn't flow very naturally, and hopefully the pauses make it clearer. As LJT's comment shows, it's hard enough to follow.
I always. Used to put. A small pause. After "justice" too.
The real reason is that it's broken up into bite-sized pieces so that kids can learn it. And then that gets ingrained.
Seriously -- many people, when asked to *say* the alphabet, will say it as an atonal version of the song that ends "W, X, Y and Z".
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