A Pledge of Allegiance to Pledge of Allegiance’s Centennial

Forgive them. They were naive. They didn’t know it couldn’t be done. In this economy? In an election year? Why, they didn’t even know about “the Columbus issue.”

But they wanted to do something for their country, your country, our country. So they just went ahead and did it, these upstarts, these dreamers, these patriots.

They engineered a national school celebration to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Pledge of Allegiance Oct. 9, complete with local pageants, an official song, an exhaustive teaching curriculum, a poster, government resolutions, a Disneyland extravaganza and, who knows, maybe more, more, more.

(Why stifle the imagination when they’re on a roll?)

The fever started incubating four years ago in Paula Burton, a substitute elementary school teacher and PTA mom in Villa Park. Paula is 51 years old, a mother of four with a fire captain husband, a huge dog and a bird.

She’s an active type, more like kinetic, someone who leaves visitors wondering, “Is she for real ?” (Yes, what you see is what she is. And the red-white-and-blue outfit? Standard, I’m told.)

Clearly, Paula loves her country with the unabashed ardor of an immigrant, which she is. She emigrated from Holland with her family when she was 9 and her brother was 7 years old. This was five years after their father escaped from the German labor camp where he was held during the war.

“My parents were really proud to be American,” Paula says. “It was, ‘We will learn English. We will be Americans.’ ”

One can say that Paula really took this to heart. To Paula, the Pledge of Allegiance just about says it all. Only she found that the kids she was teaching didn’t quite see, or hear, it the same way.

To them it was, “I plegda legiance to the flag of the Unitedstatesofamerica and to the Republic for whichit stands, one Nation, under God, invisible with liberty an’ justice for all.” Or slight variations on the same.

Let us say that Paula, dubbed the Flag Lady by some of the kids, would take it upon herself to straighten them out.

“I talk about pride, what it takes to be an American and isn’t it wonderful to live in this country,” she says.

Then Paula, definitely a “follow-through” type, got to talking with her friend from church, professional pianist JoLane Jolley, about doing more to banish the apathetic mumbling with which millions of school kids start their day.

They wanted to bring their patriotic message to children, and their parents, not just in the neighborhood, but from sea to shining sea. Even though neither of them had any idea how .

But we’re talking doers here, the type of women who know how to use their imaginations (and a phone), write letters, plumb libraries, and generally charm, wheedle and beg for everything from advice to donated labor to corporate cash.

Which, with the help of some 40 volunteers, is exactly what they have done. They’ve even incorporated as a nonprofit corporation, Celebration USA, with Paula as its prez.

“Can you believe that?” she asks me.

Yes, I can.

“The magic of this country is you can do this,” adds JoLane. “You can still start with an idea and make it happen.”

Oh, all right, so it hasn’t been exactly easy. Early on, when she was encouraged by the gung-ho responses of her friends and local school district, Paula figured that the whole thing would just catch on like wildfire and almost happen by itself.

“I thought, you know, it would go pouf ,” Paula says.

She was wrong.

After checking with the National Archives and other organizations and discovering that nobody was planning anything to commemorate the pledge centennial--which coincides with the 500th anniversary of Columbus’ arrival--Paula tried to get in touch with Education Secretary Lamar Alexander, thinking that everything would just trickle down from there.

She was wrong again.

Fact is, the federal bureaucracy has been decidedly uninterested in this particular flag-waving event. Paula’s never even been able to get through to the education secretary.

And although she’s asked, time and again, that President Bush issue a proclamation--like President Benjamin Harrison did for the original 1892 National School Celebration of Columbus Day--there has been no response.

“We are baffled,” Paula says.

(Note to you political types: Among the stacks of other responses she has in her files, Paula’s got enthusiastic letters from both Hillary and Bill Clinton telling her that the whole shebang is a swell idea.)

But obviously not one to be deterred, Paula is in the process of collecting proclamations from the governors of all 50 states. The first to oblige: Gov. Walter Hickel of Alaska. From California’s Pete Wilson: Still no word.

And as for the “Columbus issue”--neither Paula or JoLane started out knowing anything about the controversy over Columbus’ historical place--they have dealt with this head on.

Native Americans have contributed to the manual (75,000 copies) distributed to school districts nationwide, and there is a special section about multiculturalism as well. Even some religious references are “optional” in the accompanying Pledge of Allegiance song.

What’s important, say the volunteers working to pull all this off, is to convey to kids the importance of believing in themselves, and their country, as one. In the words of the Pledge of Allegiance, that would be in-di-vis-i-ble, boys and girls.

“There are a lot of people who have good cause to get cynical when you talk about justice and liberty for all, certainly in light of recent events,” says JoLane. “But if you ever abandon those ideals, the cynics will win. You will never have justice for all.”

Paula mentions that one of the board members of Celebration USA suggested that perhaps the pledge should be amended to read “ seeking justice and liberty for all.”

You ask me, that sounds like a good teaching point, something to get worked up about.

We are all Americans. Let’s love our country and make it work. Let’s live by the pledge.