Welcome

WELCOME TO THE GREEN PEN!

It's my personal soapbox, a place for me to express thoughts and feelings, musings and rants, reflections and recollections; to have fun with words -- about things spiritual, environmental, social, political, economic, and, from time to time, personal. And of course about peace. Soapboxes are in public places (as London's legendary Hyde Park) on purpose, and so I invite conversations with you, for it is through civil discourse that we can gain some perspective on the seeming chaos of these changing times and learn together how to shape a positive future for ourselves, our communities, and the generations to come.

Thursday, February 4, 2021

Pledge of Allegiance

It was in the middle of my 6th grade year that the U.S. Congress decided, and President Eisenhower concurred, that the United States of America was not merely one nation but, importantly, one nation under God. Thus, the Constitution’s guarantee of separation of church and state be damned, all citizens, including school children, were now required to acknowledge the irrefutable reality of that religion-based truth every time they pledged allegiance to the flag. And we, of course, obeyed.