A Flag Day call for the 'pledge'

American citizens across the United States and around the world are being asked to pause together at 2 p.m. Eastern daylight time on Flag Day, Saturday, June 14, to recite the Pledge of Allegiance.

Lou Koerber, volunteer coordinator for the "Pause for the Pledge" event, said his group believes that "citizens everywhere would welcome an opportunity to demonstrate their faith in their nation and their gratitude for the privileges they enjoy as Americans by pausing for a few seconds on Flag Day to repledge their allegiance to their flag."

The idea for the national pledge came from workers at the Star-Spangled Flag House, a US national monument in Baltimore. The house is the site where Mary Pickersgill sewed the original "star-spangled banner," a 30-by-42-foot US flag that was "still there" "by dawn's early light" after a 25-hour bombardment of Fort McHenry in Baltimore Harbor by British forces Sept. 13-14, 1814.

The group has received grass-roots support from across the US and the cooperation of several major corporations.