Variations on a Pledge

W hen we invited various and sundry people -- diverse in profession, geography, ideology and background -- to revise or even rewrite the Pledge of Allegiance, one told us the current wording is "just Yankee Doodle Dandy"; it could not be improved upon. Another explained that she had "a problem with the whole idea of pledges and allegiances. . . . It's a

paradigm I find dangerous." A third noted that, in such an exercise, "the line between treason and self-parody is narrow indeed." But most, in the spirit of self-expression that we celebrate on the Fourth, seemed happy to walk that line. Here are their alternative pledges -- some a mere tweak, others more inventive -- crafted by people who neither found the pledge perfect nor considered the paradigm dangerous.

I pledge allegiance to this nation of the first-person singular pronoun -- scandal to dictators and to armies of "we"; and to its Bill of Rights protecting village atheist and immigrant dreamer and the bedroom door, one paradox indivisible: nation of "I."

-- Richard Rodriguez, writer

I pledge fidelity to the democratic principles of the United States of America, based on the freedoms of thought and expression without arrogance or self-righteousness and with tolerance and respect for all.

-- Robert Olen Butler, novelist