One nation under God – no comma needed

By Staff
Leada Gore, Editor
Like most people, I learned the Pledge of Allegiance when I started school. In my case, this was 1977, so along with the Pledge, we also said the 23rd Psalm. This was a public school but no one seemed to question it back then. Of course, we also knew if we acted up we would get paddled at school and then again at home but no one really questioned that either.
I learned the Pledge just like most everyone does:
And for 20 plus years, that’s the way I said the Pledge. That is until one day when I was covering a school board meeting. The group stood to say the Pledge and said ““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, (pause) indivisible, (pause) with liberty and justice for all.”
Instead of pausing between “one nation” and “under God” they just kept going, leaving me about a beat behind. I was baffled.
It turns out the group had a man who worked for them, I believe he was a janitor, who had done some research and discovered there’s no comma between the words of “one nation” and “under God” and a pause there is incorrect.
He educated the school board on this fact and went around to schools and taught them the correct way to say the Pledge, also. Soon, all the city boards and schools in the area were saying the comma-less Pledge. I could always tell when someone from outside the area was in town, because they were the ones ending the Pledge about a second behind the non-comma folks.
After hearing this non-paused Pledge for years, it became very normal to me. It sounded odd when I’d attend a ball game and hear the one nation (pause) under God version.
When I moved to North Alabama, I brought my comma-less Pledge along with me. Here, however, the tables were turned. People looked at me strangely when I plowed ahead through the Pledge, wondering what kind of person can’t even say the Pledge of Allegiance correctly.
Tired of being looked at strangely and tired of finishing the Pledge before everyone else in the room, I went back to the “one nation (pause) under God” Pledge. But, deep in my heart, I say it the way I learned at the school board all those years ago:
One nation under God.
Commas not required.