I Pledge Allegence

I was fortunate to have had the opportunity to watch live on our family’s computer the inauguration of our 44th President as he took the sacred and high office of President of the United States of America. President Barack Obama.

After celebrating yesterday Martin Luther King Day, the significance of this moment was even more poignant. We have come so far from that historic speech on the steps of the Lincoln Monument where Dr. King first spoke those enduring words; I have a dream.
Surely we are yet another step forward towards the fulfillment of that righteous and noble vision. Truly we are a more united people as a whole, yet the message of the day has been and is still…we have not arrived.
We have yet far to travel. There is still intolerance; there is still poverty, both financial and emotional. There are still injustices and to some degree we are even more accountable for the vices and challenges that we find ourselves experiencing than ever before because we know better.
We must each determine in our own lives to recommitting ourselves to growth and to the taking of personal responsibility and accountability to that part which is ours to claim. No longer shunning this responsibility to another, or pointing the finger outward- but claiming squarely what is ours and focusing within our most basic area of influence- on ourselves. By so doing and by growing in integrity and character our capacity will be enlarged, or sphere of influence expanded. We will begin to make change. And though that change may be small and seemingly insignificant at first, it will eventually ripple out in greater and greater measure.

Quoting Robert F. Kennedy from a speech he gave in South Africa on June 1966, the day of affirmation.

“Few will have the greatness to bend history itself; but each of us can work to change a small portion of events, and in the total of all those acts will be written the history of this generation. It’s from numberless diverse acts of courage and belief that human history is shaped. Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other form a million different centers of energy and daring, those ripples build a current which can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance.”

Let us never forget the intrinsic power that lies within each one of us to produce change; because we are children of God, there lies within all of us incomprehensible potential. I would submit that one of the great opportunities of this birthright is the ability to rise to this innate greatness by striving to learn and grow and as we humble ourselves through service and sacrifice, in short as we become more like him.

We are each called; we each have a uniquely personal mission to perform. No one can take our place. It is up to us to fulfill our foreordained potential by our thoughts and desires, and by our acts and deeds.

Though my influence is yet very small, I pledge my support, prayers, and positive energy to President Obama, and to all of our faithful elected leaders of this nation.

I too promise to do my part to support and uphold the constitution, first of all by becoming more familiar to this sacred work and by working to be a defender and advocate of it’s message and to it’s mission.

I also recommit myself to doing all I can to “preserve the sanctity and safety of the home and the integrity of the family, where faith in God and obedience to His commandments are taught as the foundation of a productive life.” I recognize that the family is the basic unity of society, and know that our nation will be stronger as I strengthen my family; the center of my sphere of influence. Here I will work tirelessly to succeed.

All these things I do solemnly pledge with my whole heart.