Eavesdropped: Liberty vs. Religion

by Cathy

The other day in our garage, Ari decided to share what she learned in school that day.

Now normally, when I specifically ask her:
"How was school?"
I get a generic "Goooood."
And to, "What did you do today? Anything exciting or fun?"
I'll get another generic, "We sang songs, did art and played outside."
This was a lot of information compared to the response I usually get from Bella, which is usually a flat, "Nothing."

As I was unloading the mounds of Target bags from the trunk, the two of them were goofing around with their bicycles on our driveway. Out of the blue, Ari starts:

"I pledge allegiant, to the father, of the United States of America..."
She kept going, but Bella and I were still stuck on that first sentence. We looked at each other and smiled as I whispered, "Awww, how cute. She has religion and liberty all mixed up."
We respectfully let her finish the pledge and I gave her big high-fives on learning to recite it - I mean, it's a lot of difficult, big, unknown words all strung together for a little five-year old to memorize.

Bella saw that I was still chuckling under my breath so she leaned in and said rather matter-of-factly:

"Well, if you think about it, she's right. She's pledging allegiance to Obama."

And I'll be darned if that doesn't make sense.