"...one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all."
Most Tufts students who attended public schools have had the experience of recanting this familiar refrain each day during at least some point in their pre-collegiate educational career.
For me, as for many, the words were delivered over a tinny loudspeaker, to whose sound our class would automatically jump to our collective feet, with our hands firmly over our hearts. Everyone would, except for maybe one or two kids, who sat awkwardly silent as the rest of their classmates avowed their patriotism.
Most of these silent students sat because their parents had told them to. Although it seemed so at the time, their parents were not motivated by a sadistic desire to embarrass their children. Rather, they objected to the affirmation of a heavenly identity within the context of a nationalistic oath, imparted in the words "under God."
To these parents, as well as to atheists and civil libertarians everywhere, Michael Newdow is a hero. The man who challenged the Pledge of Allegiance before the Supreme Court, believing that it violated the First Amendment, fought an uphill battle on behalf of a passionate minority. Tufts is very fortunate to host Mr. Newdow; he is speaking tonight, Monday, Mar. 13.
Let me say that during the Pledge of Allegiance, I was never one of the sitters. I state this not to trumpet any personal patriotism, but rather to propose an intellectual, rather than spiritual, approach to the sticky questions surrounding our Pledge. As a God-fearing Roman Catholic, I have no qualms with the deific reference. But tolerance and respect for the individual would stay me from reprimanding those who would question its use in the public realm.
As an atheist, Newdow's objection was derived from grounds with which I don't personally associate. Still, we share a common concern for the civil liberties that catapulted the issue before the bench of the nation's highest judiciary. In 2000, Newdow sued his daughter's school district, asserting that the words "under God" amounted to an "endorsement of religion," which is explicitly forbidden by the First Amendment.
Two years later the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in Newdow's favor, a decision reinforced by a subsequent district court case. The Supreme Court, however, effectively skirted the issue, dismissing the case on a technicality: Newdow did not have custody of his daughter when he originally filed suit.
Since then, Newdow has vocally advocated for the most stringent separation between church and state, as well as for the closest possible scrutiny of government encroachment upon civil liberties.
In our nation's 230-year history, the words "under God" have actually only appeared in the Pledge of Allegiance for 52 years. In 1954 Senator Homer Ferguson, a Republican from Michigan, proposed the Pledge be amended, and on Jun. 8 of that year, the Congress soundly endorsed him.
Newdow's position is that the legislation enacted on this date effectively constitutes state-sponsored segregation. He once made his point, "It was government saying that it's ok to separate out these two people on the basis of race. Here we're saying it's ok to separate two people on the basis of their religious beliefs."
The Supreme Court did not agree. Although they would not formally pass a ruling on Newdow's case, the justices expressed their opinions regarding the First Amendment complications Newdow asserted: "To give the parent of such a child a sort of 'heckler's veto' over a patriotic ceremony willingly participated in by other students, simply because the Pledge of Allegiance contains the descriptive phrase 'under God,' is an unwarranted extension of the Establishment Clause, an extension which would have the unfortunate effect of prohibiting a commendable patriotic observance."
Whether one believes that the Pledge of Allegiance is too trivial a matter for the Supreme Court, or if one sees such an issue as tantamount to eroding the Bill of Rights, one must accept the seriousness of any potential infringement upon such an important article of our society.
This, no doubt, is all that Michael Newdow can ask of you. I implore you to give him an hour of your time when he comes to speak tonight at 7:30 p.m. in Braker 001.
In our nation's 230-year history, the words 'under God' have actually only appeared in the Pledge of Allegiance for 52 years.
Patrick Roath is a freshman who has not declared a major. He is local vice president of the Tufts American Civil Liberties Union and is active in the Tufts Democrats.
