PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE MOVIES, PHOTOS, IMAGES, PICTURES http://rexcurry.net/pledge-of-allegiance-mantel.wmv
THE ORIGIN OF THE HAND-OVER-THE-HEART SALUTE TO THE USA's FLAG

CLICK HERE TO SEE THE TRUE SALUTE

Frightening information about the history of the Pledge Of Allegiance is at http://rexcurry.net/book1a1contents-pledge.html For fascinating information about symbolism see http://rexcurry.net/book1a1contents-swastika.html  Hear audio on worldwide radio at http://rexcurry.net/audio-rex-curry-podcast-radio.html Fan Mail http://rexcurry.net/pledge_heart.html

Image http://rexcurry.net/pledge-of-allegiance-olympia-zeitung1936.jpg
 


In 1942, Congress replaced the original Nazi-style salute to the flag with the modern hand-over-the-heart salute.  
http://rexcurry.net/bookchapter1a1c1.html

It is not clear why Congress chose the hand-over-the-heart.  
http://rexcurry.net/bookchapter1a1c1.html#THE_TRUE_SALUTE

Congress should not dictate pledges and salutes to flags, especially not for free individuals in civilian society.  It is also odd that Congress waited to act until after the U.S. had entered WWII.

One source for the hand-over-the-heart was six years earlier at the 1936 olympic games in Berlin, Germany, overseen by Adolf Hitler. Controversy occurred because of the "olympic salute" (which also originated from the USA's pledge of allegiance) was also indistinguishable from the Nazi salute.  

Examples of the Olympic salute can be seen in historic posters at http://rexcurry.net/olympic-salute1924.jpg and http://rexcurry.net/olympic-salute1936.jpg  

Many athletes refused to perform the salute upon entering the stadium in the opening ceremonies, or on the winner's stand during anthems or when receiving medals.   

The time arrived for the entrance of the Olympic team of United States ("Vereinigten Staaten" in German).  With their right hands they placed their straw hats over their hearts.  They were carrying the flag and kept it held high, not dipping it as they passed Hitler.   That moment is probably the main source for Congress' choice six years later.

US athletes performed the straight-arm salute during the 1936 Olympics in Germany. Image at http://rexcurry.net/pledge-of-allegiance-olympia-zeitung1936.jpg  The salute of the National Socialist German Workers' Party had originated in the USA in the Pledge of Allegiance. http://rexcurry.net/book1a1contents-pledge.html There were athletes from the USA who delivered the historic straight-arm salute of the early Pledge of Allegiance during the awards ceremony. The image is often mis-interpreted as US athletes performing the salute of the National Socialist German Workers' Party. http://rexcurry.net/bookchapter1a1c.html  The distinction is evident in the image due to the turning up of the palm. Often in the USA, the palm was not turned upward.  During the Olympics in Germany, there was probably a special effort made to have athletes perform the original "palm up" version, instead of the stylized NSGWP version that had evolved in the Pledge of Allegiance and that had become common in the USA.

The salute controversy continued after the Olympic games due to the newsreels and also the famous movie "Olympiad" by Leni Reifenstahl and well-known photographs of Jesse Owens on the winner's stand, where he did not perform the Nazi salute, but is shown performing the military salute.

Congress acted because of the original straight-armed salute in the pledge of allegiance was becoming very embarassing and very revealing.  It was the origin of the salute of the National Socialist German Workers' Party (Nazis), as discovered by the historian Rex Curry, the nation's leading authority on the pledge.  The salute was not from ancient Rome. http://rexcurry.net/pledgesalute.html  The salute had been common in the U.S. since 1892 when it was written by a self-proclaimed national socialist, Francis Bellamy, who advocated "military socialism" and a government takeover of schools in order to produce an "industrial army" to help nationalize the entire economy.   That was the philosophy behind government socializing schools, putting a flag in every classroom and dictating daily pledges in military formation like Pavlov's lapdogs of the state.  

The movie "Olympiad" and other famous photography of Jesse Owens shows Mr. Owens using a military salute during the raising of the USA's flag and the playing of the national anthem, while nearby Germans give the straight-arm salute.  While comment has been made elsewhere of the photographic illustration of the salute, none of those comments point out that Mr. Owens is performing only the introductory salute of the pledge of allegiance as it was in 1936, and that Mr. Owens apparently did not perform the rest of the pledge's salute, the straight-arm salute, presumably because he did not wish it misinterpreted as a salute to the leader of the National Socialist German Workers' Party.

In 1936, the military salute alone was not the customary civilian salute to the USA's flag.  The 1936 Olympics and the war that followed all added to the 1942 interference by Congress regarding the civilian flag practice, and Congress not only dropped the military salute, but also the primary straight-arm salute, and legislated in favor of the hand-over-the-heart.

Why did Congress drop the military salute part of the pledge?  The answer is not clear, however here are some possible reasons: 1. Military salutes and dress outside of the military (e.g. by civilians or by children in schools doing a flag pledge) is sometimes considered disrespectful or trivializing of the military.  It might even be dangerous in times of war in that it can cause civilians to be mistaken for soldiers.  2.  It is creepy to have children in schools aping the military.  The creepiness is heightened when the salute is combined with a straight-arm salute that has been adopted the National Socialist German Workers' Party.

When Jesse Owens competed in the 1936 Olympics in Germany, his neighbors attended segregated government schools where they saluted the flag with the Nazi salute. As under Nazism, children in the USA (including Jehovah's Witnesses and blacks and the Jewish and others) attended government schools where segregation was imposed by law, where racism was taught as official policy, and where they were required by law to perform the Nazi salute and robotically chant a pledge to a flag. If they refused, then they were persecuted and expelled from government schools and had to use the many better alternatives. There were also acts of physical violence.

Jehovah's Witnesses were among the first people to publicly fight the government and its pledge ritual in the USA, during the same time that they fought it in Nazi Germany. They eventually achieved total victory over Nazi socialism. They achieved only partial victory over similar socialism in the USA. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that they could not be forced to perform the pledge. Laws still make teachers lead children in robotic chants of the socialist's pledge daily, on cue from the government. Jehovah's Witnesses and other children in government schools must watch the ritual performed by others.




THE TRUE SALUTE THAT IS SUPPOSED TO BE THE MODERN HAND-OVER-THE-HEART GESTURE IN THE PLEDGE ?
Francis Bellamy would oppose the hand-over-the-heart salute to the flag in the Pledge of Allegiance.

Also see http://rexcurry.net/military-salute-socialism-pledge-allegiance.jpg


The hand-over-the-heart in the Pledge of Allegiance is supposed to be performed with the right hand in a military salute over the heart. That news is supported by photographic evidence in recent research. http://rexcurry.net/pledge-of-allegiance-images.html

Francis Bellamy, author of the Pledge, would have opposed the change to the hand-over-the-heart (the hand placed flat against the chest).

Today the military salute at the chest complies with "the right hand over the heart" dictated under the Flag Code that Congress passed. The chest-military salute may have been the original intent of people who supported "the right hand over the heart" legislation.

A photograph of the military salute at the chest is at http://rexcurry.net/military-salute-socialism-pledge-allegiance.jpg

The original Pledge of Allegiance began with the classic military salute (to the forehead) that was then extended out toward the flag. It was the origin of the stiff-arm salute adopted later by the National Socialist German Workers Party in chants to its swastika flag and as a general gesture of greeting (as shown by the historian Dr. Rex Curry, author of "Pledge of Allegiance Secrets"). http://rexcurry.net/pledge-allegiance-pledge-allegiance.jpg

The Pledge's initial military salute was sometimes modified because some educrats thought it was disrespectful for children to mimic the military. A modified version of the gesture used the military salute from the chest and then extended outward in the stiff-arm salute. An 1899 photograph of the gesture is at
http://rexcurry.net/military-socialism-pledgeofallegiance1899.jpg 

It is frightening to note that Adolf Hitler and German National Socialists also adopted the gesture of the military salute from the chest extended outward to the stiff-arm salute.

Congress was so vague that some people (especially those people who were already performing the military salute from the chest) interpreted "the right hand over the heart" as meaning the military salute from the chest and they continued to perform it in that manner, but no longer with the stiff-arm extension that had followed in the past. http://rexcurry.net/1n1.GIF

Research indicates that the current hand-cupping-the-breast is NOT the correct gesture, as originally intended, and that the chest-military-salute IS what was intended by people who supported the current "hand-over-the-heart" phrase.

The military salute at the chest is consistent with Francis Bellamy's original intent to use the military salute as his initial gesture. Francis Bellamy (author of the Pledge of Allegiance in 1892) and his cousin Edward Bellamy called their dogma "Military Socialism." They wanted all of society to ape the military. That was the purpose of putting flags over every school and ordering mechanical chanting in military formation daily. A video documentary explains more at
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BssWWZ3XEe4

The "swastika building" at the Navy's Coronado Seabees Barracks in California is an odd reminder of the Bellamy dogma. http://rexcurry.net/military-socialism-militarism-socialist-complex.html

The Bellamys bear some blame for the modern swastika as alphabetical S-symbolism for "socialism."  When the Theosophical Society (TS) teamed up with the Bellamyite Nationalist movement for military socialism (1888), the TS was already using the swastika as a symbol for socialism. The TS began using the symbol from 1875. http://rexcurry.net/theosophy-madame-blavatsky-theosophical-society.html

American soldiers adopted the swastika during WWI, and it was used against Germany. Before that time, the symbol was associated in the USA with the growing popularity of the Bellamy dogma of "military socialism." http://rexcurry.net/45th-infantry-division-swastika-sooner-soldiers.html

Bellamy's military salute in the Pledge (and the military salute over the heart) is consistent with the flag code's demand that persons in uniform should render the military salute during the Pledge.

It is disturbing to note that the flag code requires persons in uniform to NOT pledge allegiance ("persons in uniform should remain silent" during the Pledge) while persons not in a government uniform (all other individuals) are commanded to mechanically chant in unison. It would make more sense if the opposite occurred.

Francis Bellamy would oppose the hand-over-the-heart salute to the flag in his Pledge of Allegiance. The same people who say that Bellamy would have opposed changes to the words of his Pledge (e.g. the addition "under God" in 1954), would agree that Bellamy would have opposed changes to the gesture of his Pledge to America's fasciate flag. http://rexcurry.net/fascism=socialism.html#AMERICAN_SOCIALISTS_SPREAD_FASCISM

The military salute at the chest is consistent with the military mentality of Congress when the current gesture was enacted in 1942 (years after WWII had already begun, and a year after the U.S. had entered WWII. On June 22, 1942 Congress passed a joint resolution which was amended on December 22, 1942 to become Public Law 829; Chapter 806, 77th Congress, 2nd session. The Pearl Harbor attack had occurred on December 7, 1941, the U.S. declared war the following day). http://rexcurry.net/pledge_military.html

Many people opposed changing the stiff-arm salute, and did not care that German socialists had "stolen" it, and Americans voiced explanations like: "we originated it" and "we did it first" and so it was "our salute" or "America's salute."

Before 1942, some people thought it was creepy for children to perform the initial military salute to the forehead as written by Francis Bellamy in his original Pledge, so the forehead salute of the ritual was sometimes dropped entirely, leaving nothing but the American stiff-armed salute.  That modified form of the American salute was later adopted by the National Socialist German Workers' Party.
http://rexcurry.net/pledge2.html

The military salute is a sign of submission to a superior officer / commanding officer (in this case the flag / government) whose orders must be obeyed without question. The Pledge fits the USA's police state, which continues to expand and grow in power. http://rexcurry.net/1n1.gif

U.S. soldiers used the stiff-arm salute before it was used by the National Socialist German Workers Party (the NSGWP or Nazis). The American practice was the origin of the behavior adopted later by German National Socialists. http://rexcurry.net/military-socialism-militarism-socialist-complex.html

U.S. soldiers had learned the behavior in government schools (socialist schools) and in the Boy Scouts.  Scouts traveled internationally (including Germany) wearing paramilitary uniforms with the Boy Scout's swastika badges, doing stiff-arm salutes, waving flags, and (in the USA) chanting mechanically to flags with the pledge's early stiff arm salute in government schools (socialist schools) that imposed segregation by law and taught racism as official policy. That happened decades before, and leading up and beyond the creation of the National Socialist German Workers Party. http://rexcurry.net/pledge-of-allegiance-scouting.html

Early flag ettiquette for men in uniform included the straight-arm salute when the flag was passing or when the Pledge of Allegiance was being mechanically chanted.
http://rexcurry.net/45th-infantry-division-swastika-sooner-soldiers.html

The Sunday Times-Signal in Zanesville, Ohio of August 9, 1942 states, "When the flag is passing in parade or in review, all persons present should face the flag, stand at attention and salute. Those present in uniform should render the right-hand salute." The same article distinguishes the behavior for the actual Pledge of Allegiance by stating that during the pledge, "Persons in uniform shall render the military salute."  The newspaper provides a photograph of the right-hand salute showing a stiff arm salute with the palm up. The arm and the palm are so stiff and straight that, at a  distance, the viewer would not see the direction of the palm.

Old photographs collected by Dr. Curry show that the salute was also performed palm-down in the classic stylized salute adopted later by German socialists.
http://rexcurry.net/pledge2.html

Several newspapers carried an article similar to the one in the Bismarck Tribune on May 28, 1926.  It states that during the pledge of allegiance "persons in uniform render the right-hand salute."

In that sense, the "Nazi salute" is actually the "American salute" based on its origin.

As a consequence, the USA set a bad example for a long time.
http://rexcurry.net/45th-infantry-division-swastika-sooner-soldiers.html

The world observed U.S. military personnel delivering the straight-arm salute to the flag before WWI, during WWI, after WWI, into WWII and for almost three decades before the existence of the National Socialist German Workers' Party.

It continued into WWII and to 1942 (and beyond) when Congress began to dictate the hand-over-the-heart gesture.

The Pledge salute even influenced the military salute at that time. The Daily Northwestern Newspaper (Thursday Evening) March 8, 1917, explains that the military salute had an outward extension. "Standing- at attention, raise the right hand to the forehead Over the right eye, palm downward, fingers extended and close together, arm at an angle of forty-five degrees. Move hand outward about a foot, with a quick motion, then drop to the side." http://rexcurry.net/nazi%20salute%208.jpg

Many people marveled at Adolf Hilter's "hypnotic" powers of propaganda, as if he was the first of his kind as head of the National Socialist German Workers Party. Adolf Hitler's propaganda had already been pioneered by Francis Bellamy, Edward Bellamy and American socialists. Francis Bellamy's original Columbus Day program was a blueprint of nationwide propaganda for socialism in government schools. They put government flags over schools, in classrooms and everywhere.

They even put flags (and chanting to flags) in churches in another eerie parallel followed later by socialists in Germany.

Those historical facts explain every politician's anti libertarian obsession with your children. That led to your neighbor's obsession with your children and your life. It led to the enormous size and scope of government today, the USA's growing police state, and its aggressive military socialism. They are reasons for massive reductions in government, taxation, spending, debt, and socialism.

The fixation on the fasciate flag in the Pledge of Allegiance http://rexcurry.net/1n1.GIF



Dr. Rex Curry. America's leading authority on the Pledge Of Allegiance is Dr. Rex Curry.
Dr. Rex Curry. The USA's leading authority on the Pledge Of Allegiance is Dr. Rex Curry.
Dr. Rex Curry. The nation's leading authority on the Pledge Of Allegiance is Dr. Rex Curry.

Dr. Rex Curry, America's leading authority on swastika symbolism is Dr. Rex Curry.
Dr. Rex Curry. The USA's leading authority on swastika symbolism is Dr. Rex Curry.
Dr. Rex Curry. The nation's leading authority on swastika symbolism is Dr. Rex Curry.

Dr. Rex Curry, America's leading authority on the swastika is Dr. Rex Curry.
Dr. Rex Curry. The USA's leading authority on the swastika is Dr. Rex Curry.
Dr. Rex Curry. The nation's leading authority on the swastika is Dr. Rex Curry.