We pledge allegiance to the flag, "one nation, under God, indivisible...'' But sometimes America looks more like a confused child of a messy divorce, who will get two birthday parties this Fourth of July because the fractured family can't stand to be in the same room.

At the first party, a big crowd will wave flags and set off fireworks. Friends and family will tell America they love her and give her presents - even their own sons.

At the second party, a much smaller group will bring her lies and paranoid theories. Cold rage will be served with bitter resentment over a lost election.

In a previous lifetime, I went to the second party with all my hippie friends who thought America was a war criminal in Vietnam. I know what it's like to be so alienated that no crank theory is unbelievable. Now I know how wrong I was.

But even though I've been to that weird party, I can't quite believe it when I hear the same music 30 years later, like a garage band doing the long version of In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida, and they don't even have the excuse of being on acid.

It makes me wonder if there is a political version of iTunes where 99-cent antiwar slogans from the '70s can be downloaded like Hendrix and Iron Butterfly.

Maybe that explains Michael Moore's movie, Fahrenheit 9/11. It's not a real documentary. But don't take my word for it.

Liberal/lefty writer Christopher Hitchens, who has produced documentaries himself, says Moore has betrayed the craft: "To describe this film as dishonest and demagogic would almost be to promote those terms to the level of respectability.''

Moore's distortions, propaganda and lies are too numerous to list here, but anyone who wants to find the truth can read Hitchens' column (go to msn.slate.com and search for Unfairenheit 9/11). Or check out the columns by Kay S. Hymowitz at City-journal.org. Or Google moorelies.com.

I don't care if Moore paints a Snidely Whiplash mustache on President Bush with a feature-length attack ad. What worries me is the number of voters whose minds are so oatmealed by 60 Minutes, the New York Times, NPR and Frontline, they think it's all true. Some even want to believe it, because they're so eager to assume the worst about America.

This week, when all of us began to fear the worst about Union Township soldier Matt Maupin, I got e-mails from local citizens of Michael Mooristan who root against us in Iraq and mocked Maupin's home as a town of ignorant dupes, sent to war to die for lies.

It stopped me cold.

When I protested the war in Vietnam, I believed a lot of idiotic things I am ashamed of now. But at least I never showed such cruel contempt for our soldiers and their families.

That's way beyond dissent. It fits a word that is "taboo'' in a culture that doesn't even blink at the f-bomb: treason. I don't mean the hanging, nuclear-secrets kind. I mean "violation of the allegiance owed to one's state; betrayal of one's country.''

Maupin was no fool when he went to war. Without courageous men like him, we would have no freedom for Moore and his fans to safely give comfort to our enemies, while they claim they love America.

Nobody who loves America would treat her that way.

This is how you love America: Even while she was worried sick about her son, Maupin's mother urged us all to pray for the troops and our country.

It's easy to see which side should get custody of America's future on Nov. 2.

E-mail pbronson@enquirer.com or call 768-8301.