From Page 10, the County Board Notes, of the March 28, 2002 edition of the Arlington Sun Gazette, reporting on the March 23 County Board Meeting:

PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE GOES ANOTHER ROUND: Everyone's favorite topic of (heated) discussion, the Pledge of Allegiance found both supporters and naysayers at the meeting.

Before either side could weigh in, the board started the meeting with some remarks from Rev. Leonard Smith of Mount Zion Baptist Church. Smith commented on the aftereffects of Sept. 11 on American patriotism, then, at Chairman Chris Zimmerman's request, led the room in the Pledge of Allegiance.

“Before Sept. 11, I do not recall masses of people displaying flags and patriotism,” Smith said. “People who formerly did not stand for the Pledge of Allegiance are now the first to rise.”

Of course, not everyone came to the conclusion that this was such a good thing. Kenneth Bernstein, a former Marine and an Arlington resident since 1982, said the Pledge places loyalty to the flag before the Constitution and therefore is backward.

“I am a loyal American,” Bernstein said. “My patriotism is not any less for my exercising constitutional rights in not saying the pledge.”

STATEMENT OF KENNETH BERNSTEIN, to Arlington County Board, during the Public Comments section of the Board Meeting of March 23, 2002

I'm Kenneth Bernstein, an Arlingtonian since 1982. I'm 55, and a former Marine. I have NOT recited the Pledge of Allegiance since 1962, when I was 16.

My reason for not saying it is simple - it places loyalty to the flag BEFORE loyalty to the Constitution. I think that is backwards.

The president gives an oath to “preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States” ... other Federal officials give similar oaths to support the Constitution - they are not required to separately or additionally pledge allegiance to the flag.

The oath of loyalty given by those becoming citizens requires NO pledge to the flag - the new citizen swears to “support and defend the Constitution and laws of the United States of America against all enemies foreign and domestic....”

In 1943, during World War II, the Supreme Court issued West Virginia v Barnette, which still prohibits requiring school children to participate in Pledge ceremonies.

Justice Robert Jackson, later chief prosecutor at Nuremberg, wrote for the court, saying:

“To believe that patriotism will not flourish if patriotic ceremonies are voluntary and spontaneous instead of a compulsory routine is to make an unflattering estimate of the appeal of our institutions to free minds.”

He also wrote:

“If there is any fixed star in our constitutional constellation, it is that no official, high or petty, can prescribe what shall be orthodox in politics, nationalism, religion, or other matters of opinion or force citizens to confess by word or act their faith therein. If there are any circumstances which permit an exception, they do not now occur to us”

That “now” was the middle of World War II.

I am a loyal American. My patriotism is not any less for my exercising constitutional rights in not saying the Pledge. I uphold, support and defend the Constitution, especially those parts that protect the rights that others might dislike. I believe it is high time we stopped using the Pledge to impugn the loyalty and patriotism of others.