Grace Notes I Pledge Allegiance

By Debora Coty

This Independence Day, I’ve been thinking about a word we don’t often use in our everyday vernacular: allegiance.

According to Webster, ‘allegiance’ means loyalty, a quality that does seem to be anemic in our current it’s-allabout-me culture.

I think back on my childhood when we pledged allegiance to our nation’s flag every school morning; when our teachers and parents taught us what it meant to be loyal to our country, our Constitution, our Bill of Rights and the ideals of freedom and democracy our country was founded on.

We belted out “God Bless America,” “You’re a Grand Ole Flag” and “Here’s to the Red, White and Blue” at every turn. Didn’t matter if your people were Democrats or Republicans, we all joined hands and hearts and sang our lungs inside and out through pride in our country.

I witnessed my WWII and Korean War veteran father stand in respect, remove his hat and place it over his heart every time the national anthem was played, whether live or on TV. I, too, learned to stop wherever I was, stop talking, stand and salute the flag whenever the first bold notes of “The Star-Span-