A Red Skelton 1969 video has resurfaced recently on the Internet (of course) that really both moved and confused me. The recording is straight forward enough — a four-minute monologue on the meaning behind saying the Pledge of Allegiance as only Red could express it. Hearing his voice again, and watching him deliver one of this thought pieces, is really a nostalgia trigger for me. So is his message.
What confuses me is why it is going around on Facebook, e-mail, etc. And before you post the link, you might want to know more about the “cause group” behind it, too.
My high school chum Debbie posted this video on her Facebook wall, which is how I stumbled across it. I loved the clip. Red Skelton was all funnyman, but then, in his monologue, he’d often go from joking to serious in an artistic leap that really made us think.
If you were born after 1960, you probably don’t know, and likely don’t even care that Red Sketlton was America’s favorite clown. Those of us born before 1960 likely remember a night or two in front of an old, snowy black and white television set watching his variety hour with a beloved adult who probably now has a front row at his “live show” in heaven (or wherever your paradigm deposits your dead relatives).
This message brought to you by: “Put Christ Back Into Schools.” WHAT?
I didn’t realize until I hit “share” (thinking I’d, too, pass it along to my chronologically old friends) that the cause group behind this new old clip is “Put Christ Back Into Schools.” So if you forward the clip, it implies you did it for that reason.
Hmm. That’s the confusing part. That’s not what I heard Red Skelton suggest in that clip. In fact, if anything, he was suggesting that it not be considered a prayer (if I may be sold bold as to overlay my interpretation).
I wrote to the group that I wasn’t wanting to forward its cause, but mine — which is to say that pledging allegiance to the United States of America seems (to me) to be a reasonable expectation of citizenry. Every single man in my family was a career military man in the service of our country. My daughter spent three of her four years in the USAF in the Middle East in the Iraq war. I’m a military mom and proud of it, even though it was the four scariest and teariest years of my life.
Likewise, I still enjoy slipping back to my home town for “Heritage Days.” I’m proud that my cousins own farms or work in factories, like my dad did. I once worked in a factory myself, making Lawn Boy lawnmowers in Galesburg, Illinois. Middle America is where I come from; it’s part of who I am. My family arrived on these shores in the 1600s, and while we still claim to be Irish (stubborn Irish genes, I guess), we were born in America and have defended it with our blood and our words ever since.
Mixed message? Or not?
In my mind, bringing Christ back into the schools is a whole ‘nother debate. The reference “Under God” isn’t a deal breaker for me to keep the pledge in schools, nor would I object to removing the phrase if it is offensive to other Americans (which is likely is as we’ve become a more diverse population over the last hundred years).
To keep the pledge historically correct, say the words — or to make it more appropriate for this era, take them out. OR (the ideal), discuss it and then let individuals make decisions. We send our kids to school to learn how to think and how to take their own value structures into the world. Here’s a chance to do it.
Mind you, I’m not nearly so lukewarm about Christianity, but this isn’t about Christianity — unless the fringe groups on both sides of the debate choose to make it about Christianity. My children attended private religious schools because I had strong feelings about the importance of a strong religious foundation. So I’m not a knee-jerk Christian — I walk the walk and I live my faith every single day. But I don’t have to superimpose it over anyone else to validate it, and it won’t be undone if we take references to God out of the public schools or remove the word “God” from our national currency.
But don’t throw out the baby with the bathwater. Or … is the Pledge of Allegiance now as outdated as a ’60s classroom, regardless of the phrase in question? Is the entire notion of oaths silly to our super-sophisticated youth today — or to the people who abandoned parenting them?
All of these questions are giving me a headache, to be honest, after watching a four-minute video made over 40 years ago that still feels relevant to me. Red always could stir up a little conversation, and he’s doing it again.
So let’s talk.
You probably have an opinion, and it’s likely much more polarized than mine. Apparently a lot of people care more about an “Under God” controversy than I do. I care more about pledges. What do you think about Red’s message — and also the cause group who put it before you?
