What do we assume?

"I pledge allegiance to my Flag and the Republic for which it stands, one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all."  - The words of the original Pledge of Allegiance.  Actually, it is the second pledge, but this is the one that was changed a few times to become our modern pledge.

In God we Trust was approved by the President and by the Joint Resolution of Congress as the national motto of the United States in 1956.  It was first added to money in 1957.

The flag we think of as the Confederate flag was never the national flag of the Confederacy.  "Despite never having historically represented the Confederate States of America as a country, nor having been officially recognized as one of its national flags, the Battle Flag of the Army of Northern Virginia and its variants are now flag types commonly referred to as the Confederate Flag."  (Wikipedia)

Our national anthem is based on a poem written by Francis Scott Key, entitled Defence of Fort McHenry.  There are four stanzas - we commonly only use one of them.  It was adopted as the National Anthem in 1931.

The Bill of Rights were not part of the original Constitution.  They are the first 10 Amendments to the document.  Congress actually approved 12 amendments, but only 10 were ratified.  "Although Madison's proposed amendments included a provision to extend the protection of some of the Bill of Rights to the states, the amendments that were finally submitted for ratification applied only to the federal government. The door for their application upon state governments was opened in the 1860s, following ratification of the Fourteenth Amendment." (Wikipedia)

I list all of these snippets of information because it strikes me that sometimes we get defensive of something we value, assuming that it has always existed.  Some of us defend the items listed above as if they were adopted by the Founding Fathers in breakout rooms of Independence Hall. We defend something as if it is historical, when we don't know the history at all.  I value some of the above (not the "Confederate flag") but I am aware that they are products of change, not of set in stone 200 year old historical standards of our country.