The Pledge

When we say the Pledge of Allegiance, we do not pledge ourselves to a king or to any one person. We pledge allegiance to our flag, to our republic and to the ideals upon which our nation was founded.

Indeed, every week, the Niemöller Society begins each meeting by saying The Pledge. We make our pledge to the country, and to the constitution of the United States of America.

America is a country where each person's vote counts the same, whether you are factory worker, a tech CEO, or, yes, even the President of the United States.

We recoil at the idea of a dictator, a wanna-be dictator, an autocrat, or a demagogue. We remain deeply skeptical of anyone who claims that they alone are the source of truth or that they alone "can fix it."

We are a nation of laws. We must remain committed to resolving our differences through the democratic process, not through tribalism or political violence. That commitment is fundamental to the American experiment. Without it, we risk becoming a country awash in violence and instability, perpetually on the verge of collapse.

We can be more than that. We must be more than that.